Kerry Sherck/For the Advocate
By Wynne Parry
Staff Writer
STAMFORD – Half a dozen soldiers with tall hats and mice in gray leotards crowded in front of a small television, watching a rehearsal of “The Nutcracker” ballet as it happened above them on stage at the Palace Theatre.
“Listen, you can hear them stomping their feet because they are right above us,” volunteer Johanna Steinberg told the costumed dancers as they waited in the basement for their chance to practice in the first full dress rehearsal Tuesday of the Stamford Center for the Arts’ annual performance of “George Balanchine’s The Nutcracker.”
One of the waiting soldiers, 11-year-old Jessica Freedman, is dancing in the production for her fifth year. She is among 95 children in the ballet, which uses professional dancers from the New York City Ballet and the American Ballet Theatre in the principal roles.
An aspiring ballet dancer, Jessica has a long history with “The Nutcracker.”
“I saw it when I was really little, 3 or 2,” she said. “I went to see it every year. Then when I was 7, I heard about the auditions.”
But this year’s performance is most likely her last.
Because of waning ticket sales, the center has announced it will not continue to put on the production.
“To let something like this go is extremely painful,” said Ken Wesler, executive director of the center. “I really hoped when I announced it was the last year there would be an overwhelming wave of support, but that simply hasn’t happened.”
The production, which costs about $300,000, ceased to make money four years ago, he said. This year, he reduced the number of performances from seven to four, which were yesterday, today, Saturday and Dec. 16.
“After the first one, it will be like it’s half over. So sad,” said Olivia Rovelli, 12, as she and two friends showed off their pink-and-green-striped candy cane costumes. Olivia will dance in two of the four performances.
Her friends Octavia Morgan, 12, and Kaitlyn McAndrew, 12, agreed that the entire endeavour was a good mix of socializing and dancing.
They were thrilled to get autographs from Ashley Bouder and Julie Kent, the two professional dancers performing as the Sugar Plum Fairy.
“They are such an inspiration, to dance with them,” Kaitlyn said.
The youngest dancers start out as angels, Kaitlyn said, but they look forward to dancing as candy canes or polichinelles – dancers who spill out from beneath the giant hoop skirt of a character known as Mother Ginger.
The dancer in the skirt is a man who wears a lot of makeup, fake eyelashes and stilts, they said.
“Sometimes he steps on you, too, and you can’t say anything,” Olivia said.
The production, which is more than 20 years old, uses the choreography of George Balanchine, known for marrying music to choreography, said Darla Hoover, artistic director and an employee of the George Balanchine Trust.
“Nutcracker” ballet performances are fairly common, and, unfortunately, audiences tend to believe they are interchangeable, she said.
