DECEMBER 3, 2009 ISSUE
Studio K Presents The Nutcracker December 12 and 13
The Nutcracker ballet, which for many, has been an inseparable part of Christmas for the past 14 years, will be performed on Saturday and Sunday, December 12 and 13, at Farthing Auditorium. Photos by Peter Morris
For the 14th consecutive year, Studio K Youth Ballet Company will present The Nutcracker at Farthing Auditorium on the ASU campus. Performances take place at 7:00 p.m. on Saturday, December 12, and at 3:00 p.m. on Sunday, December 13.
Tickets are $11 for adults, $8 for students and children and group rates are available.
About 150 dancers—ranging from 2.5-year-olds to men and women in their 60s—bring the classic tale to life, said Cay Harkins, Studio K owner and The Nutcracker director.
A wordless ballet based upon the story The Nutcracker and the Mouse King by E.T.A. Hoffman, which was set to music by Russian composer Tchaikovsky around 1891, The Nutcracker has been performed worldwide and retains popularity, especially around Christmas.
“It’s very family-friendly,” Harkins said of the show, adding that the performance involves cannons, pyrotechnics, large sleighs, an onstage Christmas tree and plenty of colors.
The backdrops were ordered from a company in California, and the realistic snow used is a foam substance that dries to resemble snowflakes, Harkins added.
“We found out about it through Disney,” she said of the snow machine.
Dance students ages 13 and older will dance both nights, but children under 13 are double-cast and each dance only one night, Harkins said.
Over the course of the two performances, about 425 costumes will cross the stage, she added.
Students began preparing for the show in September, and “it’s a lot of fun for us,” Harkins said, adding that students are already asking about their parts in the ballet next year.
The Nutcracker pulls the talents and love for dance that the kids have and it is “something very wholesome for kids” to participate in—and performing at the Farthing stage is also exciting for them, Harkins said.
Some families become so involved with the show that the child, a parent and a grandparent will all contribute to the performance, and the show also has regular audience members, she said.
“We have a lot of people who come to both shows,” she said. “They realize the next night will be just as fun, with a whole new cast.”
The performance, with intermission, is slightly less than two hours, Harkins said.
The Nutcracker has been accepted as part of Boone’s Christmas tradition, she said, adding that families will routinely pick a Christmas tree together, go to dinner and then watch the ballet, and the show has also become a ladies’ night out tradition for many.
Even young children, notorious for short attention spans, become fully engrossed in the show, and Harkins said that many parents of young children tell her that their children sat through the whole production.
The money generated from ticket sales makes the following year’s show possible, Harkins said.
“People who buy a ticket are our sponsors,” she said.
Studio K was established 30 years ago, and about 14 years ago, “we wanted to make a big shift [and] change into more of a dance and production studio,” Harkins said.
Every year since, the studio has performed The Nutcracker around Christmas and another ballet, ranging from Beauty and the Beast to The Wizard of Oz in May, she said.
For more information, call Studio K at 828-265-4111. For tickets or for information about group rates, call 828-262-4046.
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