Tiny dancers Kids bringing the magic back to RWB’s 'Nutcracker' By: Jen Zoratti Posted: 7:00 PM CST Monday, Dec. 19, 2022

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A production of Nutcracker without children in it just doesn’t quite feel like Nutcracker.

For the past two seasons, the Royal Winnipeg Ballet had to mount scaled-down versions of its Canadiana-inspired holiday classic owing to pandemic restrictions, which meant very few kids could be cast outside of the lead roles of Young Clara, Dieter and Julien.

No mice. No Mounties. A slimmed-down pack of polar bears.

But this year’s Nutcracker, which opens on Wednesday and runs through Dec. 28 at the Centennial Concert Hall, returns with a full complement of kids, restoring some of that much-missed magic.

“It’s very odd to see just adults battling each other rather than the cute little mice in there, and the Mounties,” says Katrin Benedictson, vice principal of the Recreational Division at the RWB School, referring to the famous battle scene with the Mouse King. “(Having the kids) really makes it more of that dream sequence that it’s supposed to be. We’re really excited to be able to have the kids back. And they are so excited.”

That excitement is palpable at the RWB’s Graham Avenue studios on a snowy December morning. Nutcracker season is always a buzzy one for a ballet company and, for the kids, it’s electric. After all, this is their big chance to perform with the professionals on the big stage.

For Bella Watkins, a Level 4 Professional Division student at the RWB School, this year’s Nutcracker is particularly momentous. She will be the first Black dancer to portray Young Clara since 2007.

“I’m really, really, really excited about that,” says Bella, 14, who has dreamed of dancing in the role of Clara ever since she was a little girl growing up in Kamloops, B.C.

“It makes me happy and sad at the same time. Because, I mean, I like being a leader, but I also wish there were a couple more.”

Oliver Sinex, a Level 2 Professional Division student originally from Calgary, will be dancing in the role of Dieter, Clara’s trouble-making, sword-swinging younger brother. It’s a role he’s relished playing.

“For the battle scene in particular, he’s in charge,” says Oliver, 12. “And I get to be like the annoying little brother, always pouting about everything.”

Nathan Williams, 14, is a Level 4 Professional Division student along with Watkins. He will be dancing in the role of Julien, the nephew of Clara’s godfather, Mr. Drosselmeier, who gifts her the nutcracker. Nathan is a little nervous — “I haven’t been a part of a company performance onstage in front of people before” — but excited. Playing Julien has offered Nathan his first real experience with partnering, an important skill for an aspiring professional ballet dancer.

Some of these formative opportunities were not available to RWB School students during the pandemic. In 2020, a virtual Nutcracker meant a single cast — two students are usually cast in the main roles — and last year’s run was cut short.

“This can be such a big moment for some of them,” says Kendra Woo, a member of the Professional Division faculty. “It could be the reason they choose to continue dance or not. So I think it is a little bit scary knowing that potentially these opportunities could have been taken away from them.”

A lot of the recreational roles, meanwhile, are based on student height due to costuming. “So even if they met the age requirement, if they were a tiny little peanut before the pandemic and shot up during it, maybe now they’re too tall,” Benedictson says. Yet another year of pared-down casting “would have thrown a wrench into a few kids’ dreams.”

A normal year sees 100-plus kids cast as polar bears, mice, Mounties, angels, reindeer, and party kids. For the younger students in the recreational division, performing in Nutcracker is an invaluable confidence and skills builder, Benedictson says.

Not that nine-year-old Owen Fleetwood needs much help on the confidence file. The gregarious Recreational Division student has been with the RWB School since he was five, and has been cast as a mischievous party kid. “We get to steal Clara’s nutcracker,” he says slyly, “and pretty much follow everything Dieter does.”

Owen knows he’s part of something big.

“I’m excited to be part of people’s Christmas traditions,” he says. “I love being on stage. I feel like I was made for dancing.”

Eleven-year-old Recreational Division student Hailey Latigar also understands her assignment as a fellow party kid.

“It’s a lot of fun, because it’s mostly about being a kid before Christmas,” she says. “I like dancing with the company and just being a kid onstage.”

And it’s precisely that spirit that the kids bring to Nutcracker.

“I think that the magic of the holiday season is really driven by children,” Benedictson says, adding that having kids be part of the production goes a long way in making the ballet more accessible for kids in the audience.

“It’s such a special opportunity for them,” Woo adds. She remembers coming up through the recreation division herself, and the day she received the letter saying she had been cast as an angel. “I was crying, I was so excited,” she says.

“It’s such a special opportunity, too, for all of their families to come and see them on a big stage, in a big production. It’s just so special to be able to add to the magic that already is the holiday season.”

jen.zoratti@winnipegfreepress.com