Dance school’s version of ‘The Nutcracker’ features all-student cast

Clara, the Nutcracker Prince and the Sugar Plum Fairy are set to bring a time-honored holiday tradition to Summerlin.

The Nevada School of Dance plans to present "The Nutcracker" at 7 p.m. Dec. 16 and 6 p.m. Dec. 17 at Faith Lutheran Jr/Sr High School's Performing Arts Center, 2015 S. Hualapai Way.

The performers are all children, some as young as 4. The Nevada School of Dance is at 6072 S. Durango Drive, Suite 110.

"The youngest ones are doing mice," said Sondra Colon, community relations director. "They're so adorable."

Besides scurrying around as mice, the children will play the Bon Bons that magically appear from the skirt of Mother Ginger.

The Nevada School of Dance said it wanted to allow as many children as possible to star in the larger parts, so some of the roles, such as the Snow Queen and the Dew Drop, will be switched out. For the Dec. 16 performance, for example, Valeria Cruz-Colon, 12, will dance the Sugar Plum Fairy part. The next night, Flavia Morante, 13, will take on the role.

Not all the major roles will change out. The Cavalier with whom they dance needs to have upper body strength, as he has lift duty, so Ivan Kalinin, 16, will play that role both nights.

Asking 4- and 5-year-olds to learn two parts likely would have been problematic.

"For the little ones, they will be mice and Bon Bons both nights," Colon said. "You can't expect them to learn more than one (part)."

This is the sixth year the dance school has put on the holiday show. Led by artistic director Luz Morante and co-artistic directors Ella Gourkova and Sergey Popov, the school's version of "The Nutcracker" bills itself as the only full-length professional production in town where young performers dance the main roles and comprise the entire corps de ballet.

Morante said the students spent the past three months learning their roles. She said it was not usual for a dance company to have students learning more than one role, but this was "a big opportunity," and the different parts had different styles of dance, which made it easier for dancers to separate the roles.

"It's a challenging task, but these kids are very talented," she said. "They have a gift, and they can focus on whatever style of dance they're doing."

The classical ballet dance school reached out to the community by bringing scenes of "The Nutcracker" to the seniors at Nevada Adult Day Healthcare Center, 2008 S. Jones Blvd., and allowing those with the Families of Effective Autism Treatment to attend a rehearsal.

"There are a lot of very dedicated young people in the Nevada School of Dance, and it shows in a performance like this," Colon said. "They were there for every rehearsal ... these kids really worked hard."

The show runs just over two hours and has an intermission. Tickets are $15 for adults and $10 for seniors and children 11 or younger. Children 3 or younger who will be sitting on laps receive free admission.

For more information, call 248-6969 or visit nevadaschoolofdance.org.

Contact Summerlin/Summerlin South View reporter Jan Hogan at jhogan@viewnews.com or 387-2949.