Church, ballet join for Christmas show

Dancers in the Columbia County Ballet will take the stage this weekend and join with First Baptist Church of Augusta to offer two evenings of Christmas cheer.

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A Festival of Carols will be held at 7 p.m. Saturday and 6:30 p.m. Sunday inside the sanctuary of First Baptist, 3500 Walton Way Ext.

"It's just a Christmas extravaganza," said Ron Jones, the ballet's artistic director. "It's going to be beautiful."

The church's sanctuary and youth choir, along with a 35-piece orchestra, will present nearly a dozen Christmas songs accompanied by about 30 dancers, Jones said.

The dancers will don festive costumes and perform during the Christmas melodies A Carol to the King , The Wexford Carol , Lux Aurumque and Betelehemu .

The ballet school has collaborated for two years with the church during itsC.S. Lewis festival but hasn't performed with it during the Christmas holidays, Jones said.

"This is the first time we will have participated with First Baptist of Augusta in their Christmas show," he said. "When they invited us to participate, I was just delighted."

The show is free and should last about 90 minutes, Jones said.

"When they (the church) do something, they really do it first class," he said. "It's really quite elegant."