Eastern Ballet Institute’s artistic director and owner, Brandi Nylen Reed, likes to put together productions you won’t see in mainstream ballet.
Past shows in the school’s eight-year history include The Emperor’s New Clothes and The Princess and the Pea. The productions are a mix of contemporary and classical dance.
On Friday at 6 p.m. at the Concord City Auditorium, the company will continue this trend, performing its variation of The Jungle Book as Act 1 of its show.
Musical selections run the gamut from Yo-Yo Ma to Edward Grieg to instrumentals from the animated and live-action Jungle Book soundtracks.
Reed said she had no idea Disney had planned a remake of The Jungle Book when she chose to do the show in April.
“It’s an adaptation,” Reed said. She explained it will have the feel of the animated Disney version, with a little bit of everything, and the same main characters: Mowgli, Baloo, Bagheera and Shere Khan.
Leads in The Jungle Book include Harrison Broadbent, 14, of Concord and Elise Beauchemin, 13, of Concord, who are alumni of the institute and students in the Boston Ballet’s preprofessional training program.
Originally based on a collection of stories by Rudyard Kipling, The Jungle Book tells the story of a young boy, Mowgli, who was raised by wolves in the jungle.
In the story, Shere Khan, a man-eating tiger, is returning to the jungle, Reed said.
Bagheera, a panther and Mowgli’s guardian, tries to bring Mowgli to the man-village for his safety. Mowgli doesn’t wish to be sent away to the village and runs off. Along the way, the boy meets Kaa, a snake; Baloo, a bear; elephants; and King Louis and the monkeys.
Kaa isn’t just one dancer performing as the nefarious snake, it’s many, similar to the Chinese dragon, said Vivienne Sohmer, 17, one of the dancers in the show. Sohmerhas been with the institute off and on for three years and danced previously at another studio.
The ballet culminates with a standoff between Mowgli and Shere Khan. In the story, Shere Khan fears man’s fire.
Fire is personified by a group of five dancers, including Sohmer. The scene features primarily classical ballet with en pointe, when the dancer balances on the very tip of her toes, Sohmer said. There are a few contemporary moves mixed in. The fire dancers perform their piece and leave the stage, but are called back by Mowgli to surround Shere Khan. The dancers carry the tiger off stage. Ultimately, Mowgli does go to the village to be with his own kind.
Reed hasn’t seen the recently released live-action Disney Jungle Book but said when working out the battle scene and the ending, she consulted students who had seen it on what happens.
While the story has similar plot points that people are familiar with, the show contains original movement and creativity in costuming. For example, Reed said, the monkey dancers don’t look just like monkeys, they look like dancers.
Shelby Sohmer, mother of two dancers, made masks for the costumes in the show.
The students are approaching the show with excitement, Reed said. Especially since the masks have been introduced.
“Dancing with the masks has . . . really brought it to life for them,” she said.
Act 2 will feature classical and contemporary dance pieces, including a father/daughter partnering dance set by Douglas Davis, and student-choreographed pieces.
About 30 students, ages 6 to 18, will dance in the show.
Sohmer is in the competition, contemporary and the student choreography classes, and she will dance a piece with each group.
“I love performing,” she said. “It’s like that’s my favorite part of dancing.”
She and her father, Mark Sohmer, will also participate in the father/daughter pas de deux.
“He loves it,” Vivienne Sohmer said. “He brought it up to Brandi (Reed).” It was something her past studio had done.
“I think it’s going to be really good,” Sohsaid. She hasn’t seen every act perform yet, just that of herself and her sister, but from what she has watched, she said it will be a good show.
Tickets will be $12 or free for children younger than 5.
(Sarah Kinney can be reached at 369-3324, skinney@cmonitor.com or on Twitter @sekwrites.)