THE NUTCRACKER presented by Berkshire Ballet Theatre At Raue Center This Month

“For me, it reflects on how far I have come as a dancer and the confidence that my dance teacher has in me to be able to handle and perform this role”.

Both girls are 16-year-old juniors and this is the third year they have been part of the Pacific Festival Ballet’s “Nutcracker” performances.

In October the troupe performed Balanchine’s 1975 Walpurgisnacht Ballet, a challenging dance that requires no fewer than 24 female dancers.

Jasmine Evans, 13, of Fleetwood, who portrays Clara, has been participating in The Nutcracker since age 7. This is Givan’s final year. Composer Pyotr Ilyich Tchaikovsky based the piece on Alexandre Dumas’ French version of “The Nutcracker and the Mouse King”, by E.T.A. Hoffmann.

What you should know: This year the Regional School of Ballet is celebrating its 30th anniversary.

The goal is to add “touches here and there” that will make the ballet a new experience for Arkansans who attend every year, while maintaining some of the traditions and the community cast, Fothergill says.

Washingtonville High School is located on West Main Street in Washingtonville.

The Mouse King Tea Party, noon, December 9, Corvallis High School. Orders received after Friday, Dec. 8, will be held at the door.

North Dakotan Muller Dahlberg, who played the Nutcracker in the troupe’s production past year, is one of four guest dancers from UA Dance.

Audience members will be moved to leap from their seats to battle the Mouse Queen and her horde of mice, have a snowball fight alongside Clara and a family of snowmen in the Land of Snow and Ice and, of course, dance along with the Sugar Plum Fairy and her Cavalier.

“We really hit the ground running and made a good many changes including to The Nutcracker”, Catherine Fothergill says. But, overall, why mess with a good thing?

Forty years on, the annual “Nutcracker” ballet isn’t just a tradition for those who go to see it every year; it’s also one for the generations of dancers who have performed in it over the decades.

What you should know: For each ticket sold Legacy Ballet donates $1 to FISH of Albany, as well as all of the proceeds from its food concessions.

Of course, The Nutcracker is a source of Christmas merriment in many parts of the world, but along with that Christmas connection, why has this work become such an enduring classic?

“They express their love of dance in a not-so-strucutured environment and we see the joy on the parents’ faces”, she said.

To be family friendly, this year’s production has new times – 1 and 5 p.m. December 16 and 1 p.m. December 17 – “just after lunch or early enough to get everyone home for a nice dinner”, Petrocci said.

To try out living in a snow globe, step backstage during a production of The Nutcracker. If you come for any of the Sunday matinees, your ticket gives you a free pass to the enormously popular Sugar Plum Party, an hour prior to each of the performances.