The Nutcracker ballet is a holiday staple, and Evansvilleโs two dance schools, The School of Ballet Indiana and Childrenโs Center for Dance Education, are planning for this seasonโs performances.
Any Tri-State dancer can audition, and rehearsals start in September for performances staged at the beginning of December. The taleโs familiarity makes rehearsing and putting on a two-act, nearly two-hour ballet easier, but each yearโs performances are a little different.
โWeโve got it down to a fine art, but itโs never the same,โ says Deena Laska-Lewis, who founded CCDE in 1995.
โI would need more time to prepare if it wasnโt (mostly) the same every year,โ says Kerri Lambert, artistic director of Ballet Indiana โ a nonprofit facilitating performances โ and SBI. โA lot of hard work happens before dancers rehearse.โ
SBI, owned by Danieฬle Greenawalt โ who bought and rebranded the dance studio in 2018 โ and BI work together to put on each yearโs production with the addition of the Ballet Indiana Symphony Orchestra under conductor Henry Cheng.
SBIโs production features dancers as young as three and professionals Danielle Troyano of San Diego, California, performing the role of the Sugar Plum Fairy and Alex McCleery of New York City dancing as Cavalier. There are 100 performers, plus parents, volunteers, and a 50-person orchestra. Scholarships make sure more dancers can participate, and Ballet Indiana works with the YMCA of Southwestern Indianaโs Community Outreach Program to achieve that goal.
CCDE tours The Childrenโs Nutcracker throughout the Tri-State annually. This yearโs production includes 40 dancers from CCDE, plus dancers from each stop. Evansville performances incorporate students from Highland Elementary School, Lincoln School, and the Joshua Academy charter school.
This year, Laska-Lewis also worked with board member Krysti Hughes, who is a certified orientation and mobility specialist at the Evansville Association for the Blind, and Easterseals Rehabilitation Center on a sensory-friendly show that expands โThe Nutcrackerโ through the senses. Children will be able to touch pieces of costumes, and peppermints will be distributed for smell and taste.
โWe have a job to make joy,โ Laska-Lewis emphasizes. โWe never stop performing.โ
โWe have a great time,โ Lambert says.
CHILDRENโS CENTER FOR DANCE EDUCATIONโS โTHE CHILDRENโS NUTCRACKERโ
Jasper Arts Center
951 College Ave.
Jasper, Indiana Dec. 2, 3 p.m.
Thralls Opera House
612 Church St.
New Harmony, Indiana Dec. 3, 3 p.m.
Old National Events Plaza
715 Locust St.
Dec. 8, 4 p.m. (free sensory-friendly performance)
Dec. 8, 7 p.m.
Dec. 9, 2 p.m.
Preston Fine Arts Center
2660 S. Green St. Henderson, Kentucky Dec. 10, 3 p.m.
SCHOOL OF BALLET INDIANA AND BALLET INDIANAโS โTHE NUTCRACKERโ
Victory Theatre
600 Main St.
Dec. 9, 7 p.m. Dec. 10, 2 p.m.