Around 65 dancers between the ages of four and 18 will take to the Orpheum Theatre stage in Galesburg this week to perform the classic Christmas ballet about a girl who gets a nutcracker that comes to life.
The two performances are at 7 p.m. on Thursday, Dec. 19 and Friday, Dec. 20.
This is the fourth year Dancers’ Studio of Monmouth has presented “The Nutcracker” ballet at the Jewel of Galesburg under the direction of Arlene Smith.
“I grew up in Puerto Rico,” Smith said. “I danced in a company there with Ballets Contemporano under the direction of Blanca Cortez, who also happens to be my sister. I come from a family where we’re all dancers or artists.”
Smith trained in classical ballet in Puerto Rico, then established her dance studio in Monmouth in 1999. Around 15 years ago, Dancers’ Studio moved to a new building on North A Street, where Smith has had the space to teach more advanced techniques.
“We just kept growing. I think we started with 10 dancers, and it's grown to this. I never thought we could get to the point where we could have a full cast of ‘The Nutcracker,’” Smith said.
'The joy of it all'
The cast features dancers from southeast Iowa and west central Illinois, including Evelyn Nelson of Macomb.
“I've been dancing since I was three years old, but I only started ballet when I was 13,” Nelson said.
Now 17, Nelson is playing the role of the kind and gracious Snow Queen for the second time.
“When I am dancing, I'm kind of able to almost embody snow. The quickness of it, the cheerfulness of it, just the joy of it all, seeing the little flurries fall down, it's so beautiful,” she said.
For the older dancers like Nelson, “The Nutcracker” is a serious time commitment. They’re at the studio five days and putting in 20 hours a week on top of school and other activities.
They also do cross-training to prevent injuries.
In addition to the physical demands of the two-act ballet, they’re emotionally invested in the story.
Sydney Salazar, 16, of Monmouth is reprising her role as the Sugar Plum Fairy, or the Queen of the Land of Sweets.
“She's very soft and graceful, like what you would think a sugar plum is,” Salazar said.
She said in the moment, on stage, she becomes the character.
“Nothing else matters,” Salazar said. “It's just the music and the stage. You get to portray these beautiful stories with gorgeous music, and you get to give that to the audience.”
Salazar said even if you don’t know a lot about ballet, "The Nutcracker" is a beautiful story.
Rigorous training
Smith’s students have been accepted to elite college dance programs and to summer dance intensives at places like Joffrey Ballet and Ballet Chicago.
Not all of her students aspire to be professional dancers, but that doesn’t mean she makes their training any less rigorous. At Dancers’ Studio, all students receive a high level of technical instruction.
Smith said she demands excellence and all students are taught that self-discipline is the key to achieving anything worthwhile.
“The most important thing I want them to learn is that it's okay to fall as long as you get back up. You know, what's done is done, you keep moving forward. I mean, nobody ever achieves greatness without failures,” she said.
As director of “The Nutcracker,” Smith said she makes sure to give each dancer a part where they can shine.
“I want each one to feel very good about their own performance,” she said.
For Smith, every part of “The Nutcracker” is powerful and has beautiful music. But her favorite is probably the battle scene, when the nutcracker comes to life and an army of toy soldiers fights an army of mice.
“Although it's not the most technically challenging, it's so powerful and it's when the nutcracker becomes a prince. And there's no second act without that scene,” Smith said.
Tickets for Dancers’ Studio’s “The Nutcracker” are available online.
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