When Santa Maria Civic Ballet Marketing Director Carole Zink says, “Everybody can dance,” she means it whole heartedly. Throughout the years, Carole has seen dancers of every age take the stage—and when it comes to the annual Nutcracker Christmas performance—everyone wants a little taste of the spotlight.
One young girl, about 3 years old, was told by her mom she was too young to be in this year’s production.
“The little girl was so excited about the show that she passed out fliers to passersby, letting them know she was going to be in The Nutcracker,” Carole said. “Well, her mom gave in, and her daughter was so excited. It was amazing to see.”
As you can imagine, this is a common story. What aspiring dancer doesn’t want to get up on stage and act out such a magical holiday classic? There’s glittery snow, life-sized toys, belly dancers, rat kings, and—of course—the swelling, iconic music of Tchaikovsky. Christmas fanatics, eat your heart out.
Everybody Can DANCE and the Santa Maria Civic Ballet are currently gearing up for the beloved community tradition, running Nov. 28 and 29 at the Clark Center in Arroyo Grande. This year promises to be an action-packed event featuring more than 60 dancers of all ages and walks of life.
Carole is particularly excited about the Snow Scene as well as the Waltz of the Flowers, which features 32 classically trained dancers moving in fluid synchronicity.
“Where many companies may have only six dancers in a featured piece, the large numbers in this scene especially, add a richness and complexity not often seen,” Carole said. “We work with a grand scale and draw from a large core of dancers. It’s like the difference between playing the piano with one hand, and then playing it with two.”
According to Carole, this year has seen an influx of fresh faces. Blue Moon Harvest belly dancers will again bring their mesmerizing, hip-wiggling antics to the Arabian scene.
“We have a lot of new people in the program, and the show has become more culturally diverse, too,” Carole said. “We have adults involved in the ballet company and young children in the studio, and the numbers have grown by leaps and bounds.”
No pun intended.
When Artistic Director Diane Zink started the show some 28 years ago, it was a whole different story. The production was small, but it had heart.
“Diane started out with just a few people, working with the city’s Recreation and Parks Department to put it on, and it just expanded until she eventually grew into the Clark Center, which is such a beautiful professional theatre,” Carole said.
Professional dancers are also included in the program each year, including experienced dancers like Juliet Peck, a senior at Notre Dame de Namur University in Belmont and a former Everybody Can DANCE teacher.
This year, Peck will play the coveted roll of the Sugar Plum Fairy—the same part Diane played back in the day.
Although the show has certainly become more refined throughout the decades, it’s still very much a community production. A father of one of the dancers plans to dress in drag (Look for him during the party scene: He’s the one who will be wearing a large hoop skirt filled with scuttling children).
Heart, it seems, is still the main ingredient of this show—a quality you can’t fabricate.
“We’re able to pick from the very best dancers, both locally and from outside the area, but we really aim to showcase every dancer from every level,” Carole said. “This cast truly reflects the community.”
Contributor Hayley Thomas wants a piece of the spotlight. Contact her at hthomas@newtimesslo.com.
This article appears in Nov 19-26, 2015.