Flights of Fancy — Nutcracker Style

As Ballet’s Ultimate Holiday Tribute Takes to the Stage,Various Young East Texas Dancers Join in the Dream

By Elaine Rogers

All across America — and in Texas towns stretching from Mineola to Mount Vernon — tiny tots in black leotards and pink slippers routinely cluster in humble dance studios, lining up on slick wooden floors in small mirrored rooms to practice and perfect their demi pliés and other beginner ballet moves. When collective energies to becoming human snowflakes, angels, sugarplums, mice and toy soldiers in regional performances of ballet’s ultimate spectacle of the season, “The Nutcracker.”

Few ballets blend the elements of dreams, drama and magic with as much grandeur as this historic holiday-themed show, and for a second consecutive year, a traveling ensemble of The Moscow Ballet brings it to Longview, performing its classic version, “The Great Russian Nutcracker,” November 19 at LeTourneau University Belcher Center. Adding to the specialness of the show, through its Dance With Us program, the world-renowned ballet company works with local communities and dance studios to invite young dancers with big dreams to be part of the heady scene.

Moscow Ballet spokeswoman Sally Michael Keane, says for more than a quarter century the company’s Dance With Us program has performed “The Nutcracker” and other productions in 100-plus cities, large and small, allowing thousands of student dancers the first-hand experience of participating in authentic and professional classical ballet productions.

Michele Wood, owner/director of the Dottie Hunt School of Dance in Longview, coordinated the citywide auditions for 40 ancillary roles and says the impact of dancing in “The Nutcracker” alongside world-class ballerinas who can sail through the air with gravity-defying precision and grace is far-reaching.

“It’s a pretty amazing experience for these kids,” she says. “The international influences of working with professional dancers from Russia is almost life-changing, I think. They learn so much by seeing that level of discipline and commitment to the art. And they’re up close. They see how they eat and what they wear when they’re not onstage. It’s a rare opportunity.”

Longview mom Starla Sennell echoes Wood’s comments. Her 12-year-old daughter, Starlynn Crisler, performed as a party child and mouse last year and has a more advanced role as a snow maiden this year.

Of her daughter and other local youth, Sennell says, “They get a little starry-eyed about the Russian ballerinas.”

And then there’s the sheer joyfulness of the all-about-Christmas production.

“With the mice and the children and the snowflakes, ‘The Nutcracker’ is just such a special performance,” Wood says. “It’s so perfect for the holidays because the story is all about presents, and that’s what all children want at Christmas.

Local audiences love it too, she adds.

“I’ve been surprised at how many of the parents have responded, especially the dads.  They only come because their kids are performing, but then, they’re really affected by the performance.  A lot of them really don’t know what to expect and they’re shocked when they enjoy it so much.”

An Annual Tradition

For almost three decades, the Tyler Junior College Academy of Dance has put on a large-scale production of “The Nutcracker,” creating an impressive holiday tradition of its own with a cast of 120 performers, ornate costumes, intricate choreography and music by the East Texas Symphony Orchestra.

During its 28-year run, dance department director Carolyn Hanna says TJC has ushered hundreds of students through the demanding roles while partnering with local dance studios like the Dance-N-Drill Studio and Candy Crocker School of Dance to audition and cast local youth in smaller parts. This year’s production takes place December 2-4, with five shows total.

Hanna says two world-famous dancers from the Dance Theater of Harlem perform the role of the Sugar Plum Fairy and her Cavalier, and many of the TJC students and younger dancers in a pre-professional program go on to join professional dance companies upon completing high school or their associate degrees.

Shurrell Wiebe, a TJC dance professor, has been involved in the college’s “Nutcracker” performance for years, and says her own daughter, Alexis, was cast as Clara last year — then moved on to more advanced dances in the snow waltz and Spanish Arabian scenes for the 2016 show.

“Dance is such an amazing way to build confidence and learn discipline,” Wiebe notes. “And ‘The Nutcracker’ is always special. It’s a classic and it has so many wonderful elements. The way we do it, the choreography changes every year and sometimes there’s a surprise ending, so it’s never exactly the same. But, it’s Christmasy, so it starts off the holiday season in a delightful way.”

On Their Own

Elsewhere in the region, ambitious do-it-yourself studio owners like Ashli Davis of Studio A Dance Gymnastics and Cheer in Greenville, put on their own Nutcracker performances, with teenagers and longtime students taking the starring roles.  Now in its ninth year, Studio A’s performance takes place December 18 at the Greenville Municipal Auditorium.

Nikki Adams, who works at the studio and whose daughter has taken lessons there — and danced in “The Nutcracker” — for seven years, says the production is a family affair, with about 150 students performing and siblings and parents recruited for non-dancing roles and wardrobe support.

“It’s an enormous effort, for everybody, and sometimes I beg Ashli not to do it this year,” she admits. “But nothing says Christmas like ‘The Nutcracker,’ and it always turns out to be a very special thing. We get the auditorium for a week, and it’s really exciting for the little ones to perform on a big stage.

Offstage Life Lessons 

When the shows are over, local moms of young dancers say their daughters retain lasting benefits from their experiences, on and off the stage.

“I was never a dancer, but I’ve seen the way it impacts kids,” Adams says. “They learn the importance of commitment and it gives them a work ethic. With a production like “The Nutcracker,” they learn that people are counting on them. And you’re not always going to get the big part, but it’s important to be in the snow court too. Everybody contributes.”

Wiebe sings a similar tune.

“With ballet, you’re part of a living art,” she explains. “When you dance, you become part of a living legacy of a work of choreography that has been passed on through generations.”

Sennell of Longview says she’s noticed positives like self-confidence and a sense of dedication in her daughter as well, noting that Starlynn wants to be a Kilgore Rangerette and then attend Texas A&M and dance there too.

“When she was five, dance was mostly a social thing,” she says.” But it takes hard work to do well in ballet and other kinds of dance, so I think it turns into something else pretty quickly.”