The Lawrence Arts Center hosted its annual performance of “The Nutcracker, A Kansas Ballet” this past weekend, Dec. 12-14. The cast is made up of children enrolled in an Arts Center dance class, Lawrence Ballet Theatre—LAC’s preprofessional dance company, and adults from the community. Dancers audition in the first week of September and rehearse for about six weeks, with most rehearsals taking place on Saturday, Sunday and Monday.
Many Free State High School dancers perform multiple roles, which can present challenges with quick changes, rehearsals and learning choreography. Several Free State students also work behind the scenes, with many taking on technical roles in the winter play, “Silent Sky” and “The Nutcracker.” However, freshman Nichole Weis said she loves switching between characters, such as a Party Teen and Trooper, because it allows her to grow as a performer.
“It’s one of my favorite things that I’ve done, because I get to experience two different kinds of roles,” Weis said. “Being a party teen [last year] was a lot of acting and character. You interact with the audience and the cast, and that was really fun because I love acting. But then, Troopers was a lot of jumps, it was more technical, and it wasn’t as much acting. So it was really fun to try both of them.”
“The Nutcracker” is performed worldwide and is a tradition for many dancers and community members. Senior Maria Mosconi, performing her 10th Nutcracker, said she returns for the community dance and believes the audience comes back for the energy and holiday spirit.
Senior Phoebe Morris, performing her 13th Nutcracker, said performing in classical ballets is crucial for dancers, whether they want to pursue ballet or not. Morris said she goes back to “The Nutcracker” in particular, year after year, because of Tchaikovsky’s music and the choreography, specifically, The Waltz of the Flowers.
“It’s rare for me to get lost in the music and just want to listen to it, but in flowers, the choreography fits so well that it feels natural to just dance and enjoy the music at the same time,” Morris said.
While Morris said traditions keep her holiday spirit alive, “The Nutcracker” has not featured the same roles and choreography from year to year. In recent years, the Arts Center has faced many leadership changes. This included the new Interim Dance Program Director Claire Buss, who said she wants to rechoreograph a few dances and bring a new life to the production.
“With the kind of shifts that we’ve had in our leadership here, it just needs a different breath… As a production that has been running for so long, to have some shifts every year makes sense to keep it fresh and new, especially for people that have come back year after year. It’ll be fun as an audience member too,” Buss said.
Mosconi said that changing choreography might be more stressful and time-consuming, but the spirit of the performance is still there. For many Free State students, final exams and tech week, the days leading up to a performance where performers and technicians collaborate and run the full show. Mosconi said finding time to study for finals while attending the daily 6-hour rehearsals is almost impossible, but looking back on the long days with her friends reminds her of why she does it.
“My favorite part of tech week is always the final dress when we do our bow. Especially this year, I’ll be so sentimental looking back and seeing that these are the people who have supported me for years. It’s a beautiful thing,” Mosconi said.
