By Louisa Danielson

For the Northwest News

Twenty-nine dancers from the Fort Wayne Ballet will present “Carnival of the Animals” on Saturday, April 29, at the Auer Center for Arts and Culture, 300 E. Main St., Fort Wayne.

Presenters will include preprofessional dancers, trainees and members of the Corps de Ballet.

John Dawkins, marketing coordinator for the Fort Wayne Ballet, explained that “preprofessionals are academy students at a conservatory level … generally at high school age.” Trainees pay tuition but “are considered part of the company. The Corps are the noncontracted company members.”

“Carnival of the Animals” was written by French composer Camille Saint-Saens in 1868. However, it was not published in its entirety until 1922. “Carnival of the Animals” has since become an orchestral suite often showcased by orchestras for children’s concerts today.

In the “Carnival of the Animals” that the Fort Wayne Ballet will present, the story follows a little girl named Grace who dearly wants a puppy for her birthday. Instead, she receives a stuffed animal. Grace, disappointed, throws it into her wardrobe and goes to bed. But then her stuffed toys come to life.

There are 14 movements of the music, which represent different animals like fish, horses, kangaroos and even dinosaurs.

Performances are scheduled for Saturday, April 29, at 10 a.m., noon and 2 p.m. More information can be found at https://fortwayneballet.org/performance/carnival-of-the-animals/.

For their Saturday performances, the Ballet plans to have a 25-minute show followed by a craft and a creative movement lesson with a ballet instructor.

Tickets, which start at $15, are selling out fast, which prompted the addition of the 2 p.m. show. (Their last children’s show, “Peter Pan,” sold out in March.)

Dancers of the Fort Wayne Ballet will give a special preview of their show at the Fort Wayne Children’s Zoo on Wednesday, April 26.

Dancers will be performing intermittently between 11:30 a.m.-1:30 p.m. in the Australian Adventure Plaza. The performance is free with regular paid zoo admission ($18 for adults, $14 for ages 2-14).