KUCHING – Young dancers and musicians took centre stage in Kuching on Saturday night as The Ballet & Dance House presented The Enchanted Baton: A Magical Orchestral Journey Through Classic Fairy Tales, combining ballet, live orchestral music and stories inspired by well-known Disney productions.
Held on 12 September 2026 at the Auditorium TAZA in Batu Lintang, the concert drew a full audience of parents, students, performers and dance and music enthusiasts.
The programme brought together young ballet students and the IMH Strings Orchestra for a performance built around familiar fairy-tale themes and songs. LED backdrops were used throughout the concert to create different visual settings as the dancers moved between the stories featured in the programme.
The performance followed a young girl who discovers a mysterious baton. As it begins to glow, each movement takes her into a different fairy-tale world, providing the narrative thread for the evening.
Among the productions represented were Beauty and the Beast, Frozen, Snow White and Tangled, with musical selections including Be Our Guest, Let It Go, A Whole New World, Someday My Prince Will Come and I See the Light.
The programme also featured Plaisir d’Amour, Heigh-Ho, Some Things Never Change and an original piece titled The Magic Baton. The variety of selections allowed the young dancers to perform across different musical styles and characters.
A notable feature of the concert was the age range of the performers. Dancers as young as four appeared alongside teenagers and youths, giving audiences an opportunity to see students at different stages of their ballet development perform on the same stage.
The evening included solo and group ballet showcases by medal-winning dancers from UDC 2026. These performances provided additional opportunities for the students to demonstrate their technique and stage experience.
The live orchestra was conducted by IMH Conductor Reginald Bernaldez. The strings section received support from staff leaders Liu Pei Shan on violin and Alvin Kon on cello, while keyboard parts were performed by Cantona Cyril and Keith.
Choreography for the dancers was overseen by The Ballet & Dance House principal educator Connie Sim. The programme was arranged to coordinate ballet movements with the live musical accompaniment, requiring performers to respond to tempo, timing and changes in musical dynamics.
The collaboration between The Ballet & Dance House and IMH Music House also gave the students an opportunity to experience the relationship between music and movement in a live performance setting.
For the dancers, working with a live orchestra required close attention to the music and coordination with the musicians. The young performers also had to apply their training in timing, expression and stage discipline while adapting to the dynamics of a live ensemble.
The musicians, meanwhile, gained experience accompanying dancers and responding to the demands of a performance in which musical cues and physical movement needed to remain closely aligned.
The concert concluded with a Beauty and the Beast Medley Grand Finale, performed by the IMH Orchestra as the ballet students joined together on stage. The finale was followed by applause and curtain calls from the audience.
Among those attending the concert was Deputy CEO of Majlis Seni Sarawak, Encik Asang Ikhman bin Sepian, together with members of the Board of Directors of the Arts Council of Sarawak.
The event provided a performance platform for young Sarawakian dancers and musicians while bringing together two forms of artistic training in a single production. Beyond the fairy-tale theme, the concert highlighted the discipline involved in preparing young performers for a live stage environment.
The Ballet & Dance House conducts ballet training based on the Royal Academy of Dance syllabus and provides students with opportunities to develop their technique, artistic understanding and performance experience.
Its collaboration with IMH Music House further exposed students to the practical relationship between instrumental music and dance, allowing both dancers and musicians to develop their understanding through a shared stage production.
With its combination of ballet, live strings, storytelling and familiar fairy-tale themes, The Enchanted Baton offered Kuching audiences a performance centred on the development of young talent and the interaction between music and movement.
