Growing with 'Nutcracker'
| Wednesday, Dec 09 2009 04:26 PM
Last Updated Wednesday, Dec 09 2009 04:27 PM
GO & DO
What: Tchaikovsky's "Nutcracker," presented by Civic Dance Center and Bakersfield Symphony Orchestra.
When: 7:30 p.m. Friday and Saturday; 1 p.m. Saturday and Sunday.
Where: Rabobank Theater, 1001 Truxtun Ave.
Admission: $32-$36; full-time students half price; available at the Rabobank box office.
There's a family behind each child dancing in "Nutcracker" this weekend.
Eight-year-old Lindsay Monroe and her 6-year-old sister, Megan, will be dancing in their second "Nutcracker" this year. By opening night, they will have spent almost every afternoon and evening this week at the Rabobank Theater in dress rehearsal, doing school work and resting when not required on stage. Their mother, Tracie, will have been right there with them.
"It's been every weekend rehearsing (at Civic Dance Center) in October and November," Monroe said. Then the dancers, and their families "move" to the theater for dress rehearsals.
"We pretty much do everything but sleep there," Monroe said.
Last year, both girls danced as bon-bons in the Mother Ginger scene.
"That was their first 'Nutcracker' and they got to dance together," Monroe said. "They just loved it."
Lindsay is following the standard progression through the roles; she will dance as a soldier and an angel this year. Megan will dance another year as a bon-bon.
It's a similar story for Megan and Madison Baytosh, and their mother, Stephanie.
This Megan is 8 and Madison is 5, one of the youngest members of the cast. Like Lindsay, the elder Baytosh girl is also making her way through the ranks. Now in her third "Nutcracker" production, Megan has graduated to the role of a party guest.
"She's gone from taking one class to six to eight classes a week," Monroe said. "She loves it."
The family has something extra special to enjoy this year: Madison, who makes her debut this year, will dance as a bon-bon, and she will dance the role with her sister.
"(Madison) is so excited," Monroe said. "Every year she's watched all the other girls in the 'Nutcracker.'"
The effort is not without its costs. Monroe said the commitment has forced her daughters to forgo social events to make rehearsal.
"We teach them that it's worth it because they get to do something beautiful and wonderful," Monroe said.
"It's a little tiring at first," Baytosh said. "But every year you get more experienced, you (get) tips from other moms."
"It gets exhilarating," Baytosh said.
Dance director Kristen Doolittle sees another kind of reward for the dancers, parents and teachers.
"You're teaching them things and they get so excited," Doolittle said. "It's like magic for to them.
"When you see them do their best work, the awe on their faces, that's just magic for us," Doolittle said.
They start them young: a majority of the cast of the annual "Nutcracker" ballet is under 10 years old.
Unlike productions staged by major companies, children are the stars of many local productions of the ballet, such as the annual performance staged by Civic Dance Center and the Bakersfield Symphony that opens this weekend at the Rabobank Theater.
Obviously, lead roles such as the Nutcracker, the Cavalier, the Sugar Plum Fairy and other featured roles must be danced by experienced students, typically in their mid- to late teens. But there are many roles for very young children, some as young as 5 years old.
"Most of them have done one of our (in-house) shows," said dance director Kristen Doolittle. "But this is the first time they're performing for people who aren't part of their family circle."
According to Doolittle, 50 of the 180 dancers in this year's production are between the ages of 5 and 8 years old. With the exception of some of the lead and featured dancers, most of the children are split between two casts and will perform in two of the four shows, which will run Friday and Saturday evenings, and Saturday and Sunday afternoons.
Participating in the annual "Nutcracker" ballet is a dance version of a growth chart: dancers can measure their progress, and their growth, by the roles they earn each year.
The youngest dancers usually start as "bon-bons," in a hilarious scene with Mother Ginger, an adult who wears the world's largest hoop skirt, from under which the children emerge for some ridiculously adorable antics.
Many of the youngest dancers are cast as soldiers in the battle scene with the Mouse King in the first act, or as angels in the palace scene at the beginning of the second act.
"They learn how to be in rehearsal, they learn to dance in costume, be on stage," Doolittle said.
"We might have to rehearse them a few more times (than older students) to help them dance on their own," Doolittle said.
They also have the increasingly rare experience of dancing with a live orchestra, as the Bakersfield Symphony performs the score for the performances and during dress rehearsals at the Rabobank.
In the last few years, even some professional companies have switched to a taped accompaniment as a cost-cutting measure.
As the children grow and become more experienced dancers, they can earn more difficult roles, including the party guests in opening scene, or a dancer in one of the specialty numbers, and, of course, dancing as part of the corps de ballet in the famous "Waltz of the Flowers" and other major ensemble dances.
Over the years, some students are cast in the lead roles, including the coveted Sugar Plum Fairy.
"The neat thing about what we have in Bakersfield is that we don't hire out (for major roles) unless we absolutely have to," Doolittle said. "We pull from our students."
Doolittle said 18-year-old Victoria Ornelaz will dance the role of the Sugar Plum Fairy this year. Ornelaz started out as a soldier.
