Prior Lake High School graduate puts on Christmas dance production in St. Paul

Prior Lake American

For the second year in a row, Prior Lake High School graduate Errin Liebhard will bring jazz, dance and “A Charlie Brown Christmas” to the Amsterdam Bar & Hall in St. Paul with the “CHILL” dance production.

CHILL will be at Amsterdam Bar & Hall on 6th and Wabasha Street in St. Paul Dec. 14 to Dec. 16.

“It’s going to be a real good time,” Liebhard said. “People are always interested in finding holiday options that are different from the norm. I hope some of the good people of Prior Lake will make the pilgrimage.”

After she graduated from college, Liebhard helped found “Rhythmically Speaking,” an organization which puts on annual shows highlighting various choreographers who specialize in jazz and American social dance.

The Rhythmically Speaking show is in the summer, so Liebhard began to focus producing and choreographing her own show in the fall or winter. Enter: “A Charlie Brown Christmas.”

“When I was younger, I couldn’t put my finger on why I liked the music from Charlie Brown,” Liebhard said. “I’ve come to recognize that the music and the soundtrack, the reason it’s timeless and nostalgic is it’s not afraid to be melancholy, and it’s lighthearted but still rooted in reality.”

“A Charlie Brown Christmas” premiered on television in December 1965. Due to its jazz soundtrack, absence of a laugh track and other factors such as child actors providing the voices, it was assumed the movie would be a failure, according to USA Today.

It wasn’t.

Millions of viewers tuned in the first year and every year since to watch Charlie Brown attempt to discover the true meaning of Christmas despite his depression surrounding the season.

“The music has these minor tones and times where it kind of feels sad and joyful at the same time, just like Charlie Brown,” Liebhard said. “The music is what makes it timeless.”

Though Liebhard had dreamed of doing a dance production set to the music from “A Charlie Brown Christmas” almost 10 years ago, the idea came to fruition for the first time in 2017 with dancers performing to half the “A Charlie Brown Christmas” soundtrack in “CHILL.”

“I saw the production last year, which was really great coming into it and then stepping in as a dancer, being in on both the audience side and now on the performance side of it,” CHILL dancer Kathleen Pender said. “There’s really something in it for everybody, whether it’s the connection to watching ‘A Charlie Brown Christmas’ over the years or the connection to dance or the connection to music.”

In 2018, the performers will dance to the full soundtrack, performed — as in 2017 — by a live band.

“There’s a melancholy to it that’s unique in Christmas music,” band leader Greg Schaefer said. “Christmas can be a little bit melancholy for a variety of reasons. It’s a joyous and melancholy time, and music captures that perfectly.”

While dancers performing to live music is unusual in itself, there is another unique aspect to “CHILL” — in addition to the choreographed and sequenced parts of the show, dancers are asked to improvise if the mood strikes.

“Everyone is encouraged to have their own spark and have these improvisation solo and duet moments,” CHILL dancer Cristina Tolson said. “We are really given the opportunity to feel the music and go with it.”

With the improvisation on both ends, there comes a need to collaborate, said Bob DeBoer, who plays trumpet in the band.

“A lot of times if I’m playing, I’m more worried about listening and I’ll close my eyes,” DeBoer said. “If I want to work with dancers and watch them, it’s the whole idea of can I get a musical idea from the motion of the dancer. It’s the cross collaboration of different disciplines.”

The idea of improvisation in dance is unique, Liebhard said.

“When people go out dancing socially, they don’t think about this, but they make up moves as they go,” Liebhard said. “It’s not super common to see that on stage for a dance show or a concert dance show.

The show will be at 7 p.m. on Dec. 14, 2 p.m. on Dec. 15 and 5 p.m. on Dec. 16. Tickets are available on ticketfly.org for $16 or at the door for $18.