From the Sea to the Stage: The Little Mermaid

Published September 12, 2025

From the Sea to the Stage: The Little Mermaid

In one week, A.V.A. Ballet Theatre and the Reno Phil will be presenting The Little Mermaid at the Pioneer Center for the Performing Arts. The Little Mermaid is the captivating Hans Christian Andersen story of the beautiful mermaid and her dreams of becoming a human. A.V.A. Ballet Theatre’s artistic director, Alexander Van Alstyne, has re-staged and re-choreographed The Little Mermaid to a beautiful Leo Delibes score.

In this fantasy ballet, the Mer-King is a widower and has six lovely daughters. Their grandmother helped raise the maidens and would tell them about the world of human beings above them. She told stories about the cities, ships, and the animals and people who inhabited the land. The little mermaid would fantasize about their lives.

The starring role of the little mermaid is being performed by Lexi McCloud. McCloud is from North Salt Lake, Utah. She joined Ballet West II in 2022 and Ballet West in 2024. She trained at MOGA Conservatory of Dance under the direction of Misa Oga. McCloud was awarded the Senior Bronze Medal at the 2022 Youth America Grand Prix International Finals. She was named the Grand Prix Winner at the 2022 YAGP Seattle Semi-Finals. Also in 2022, she was one of the 20 finalists at the Prix de Lausanne. McCloud was awarded first place in the classical division at the YAGP Salt Lake City Semi-Finals in 2019, 2020, and 2021.

The mermaid sisters are being performed by A.V.A. Ballet Theatre corps de ballet dancers Julia Zorio, Ana Miller, Cate Glover, Jadyn Vanderpool, Jayla Vanderpool, and Lauren Schlesinger.

The Mer-King is being performed by Dennis Davis Teolis. Teolis began his formal ballet training in 2016, at the age of seven. From 2017-2022, Denny was a member of the Macomb Ballet Company, a preprofessional ballet company in Shelby Township, Michigan. During his time with MBC, he performed in a variety of full-length ballets including: The Nutcracker, Sleeping Beauty, Cinderella, and The Little Mermaid. In 2022, at the age of 14, Denny joined Ballet West Academy’s Professional Training Division under the direction of director Evelyn Cisneros-Legate along with mentorship and outstanding training with Jeff Rogers.

The grandmother tells the mermaid sisters that when they are fifteen years old, they will be able to rise out of the ocean and watch the ships sail by and observe the towns and people on the land. One by one, each of the sisters turns fifteen years old and ventures to the top of the sea. When each one returns, they tell fanciful stories of the wonderful world they encountered.

After waiting impatiently, the youngest mermaid finally turns fifteen. She rises to the top of the sea and swims toward a beautiful ship with full sails. Curious, she peers through one of the ship’s windows and spots a handsome prince who couldn’t be more than sixteen years old. He is at a party where he dances and mingles with the jovial crowd. The little mermaid can’t take her eyes off the prince.

The prince in the ballet is being performed by David Huffmire. Huffmire was born in Carson City and raised in Reno. He was introduced to ballet through his sister, Lauren. As a child, he would spend many hours watching her at dance classes. At the age of six, he auditioned for A.V.A. Ballet Theatre’s The Nutcracker and was cast as a soldier. After that experience, he realized he wanted to be a dancer and began taking jazz, tap, musical theater, and ballet classes. At the age of 11, he began taking classes at the Conservatory of Movement with Van Alstyne as his instructor. “I knew right away he had a special talent,” said Van Alstyne. “He has the gift of natural ability and the discipline to work hard.”

By his teen years, Huffmire was getting serious about his ballet training. He attended “summer intensives” at both Ballet West and the San Francisco Ballet where he went through rigorous ballet training. Throughout this period, he danced in dozens of ballets with A.V.A. Ballet Theatre. Some of those performances include Colin in The Secret Garden, the prince in The Nutcracker, and as a bluebird in Sleeping Beauty. After graduating from Galena High School, he was offered a trainee position with Ballet West—which he happily accepted. Soon after, he was promoted to a member of the second company of Ballet West. During this time, he would come home to Reno and dance with A.V.A. Ballet Theatre in major roles such as the Snow King in The Nutcracker, the Mer-King in The Little Mermaid, and the featured male performer in the rock ballet Vortex during Artown.

At 20 years of age, Huffmire joined Ballet West’s first company and worked his way through the ranks as an apprentice, a new artist, and has been a member of the corps de ballet for the last two years as a soloist. Now 27, Huffmire trains five to six hours a day—not including rehearsal time for Ballet West performances.

Suddenly a tremendous storm moves through the sea and the ship is in peril. The ship begins to sink and all the people aboard, including the prince, are jumping into the water. At first the little mermaid is overjoyed that the prince is joining her in the water but remembers that humans cannot live under the sea. She swims to him and lifts him to the surface, takes him to the shore, and lays him on a sandy beach in front of a temple.

The prince awakens surrounded by the temple maidens. He doesn’t realize that the little mermaid saved him and not the maidens.

Each day the little mermaid returns to the land and watches the prince as he walks along the shore. She increasingly wishes she was human so she could be with him. She seeks out the Sea Witch who she hopes will advise her and help her with her dilemma. The witch tells her she can turn her into a human but as payment she must give the witch her lyrical voice. She also warns that if the prince marries anyone but the little mermaid she will turn into sea foam.

The Sea Witch is being performed by Eve Allen Garza. She received her MFA in ballet from the University of Utah and BS in business administration with a dance minor from the University of Nevada, Reno. Eve is a ballet professor the Department of Theatre and Dance at the University of Nevada, Reno. She is the ballet mistress for A.V.A. Ballet Theatre and has performed with the company since she was a child.

Joining McCloud, Huffmire, Teolis, and Allen Garza on stage for The Little Mermaid will be the large cast of dancers from A.V.A. Ballet Theatre. These talented dancers will fill the stage with color and grace. I’ve seen some of the rehearsals and the dancing blue fish, eels, and coral are fun to watch.

The Reno Phil will be performing the score to this beautiful ballet with Laura Jackson conducting. The Delibes music alone is worth the ticket price. I’ve said this many times over the years, once you’ve seen and heard a ballet performance with a live orchestra, there is really no comparison to one with a recording. There is something special when you see and hear two performing arts organizations working together to entertain an audience.

And that’s all I’m going to tell you about The Little Mermaid. To see how the story ends, you’ll have to attend the performances at the Pioneer Center for the Performing Arts next weekend. Watch and listen as all of these talented artists bring The Little Mermaid to life.

Steve Trounday is a board member at A.V.A. Ballet Theatre, the resident ballet company of the Pioneer Center. A.V.A. Ballet Theatre will be performing The Little Mermaid September 20 and 21 at the Pioneer Center. Laura Jackson will be conducting the Reno Phil.