Champaign Urbana Ballet – The Nutcracker

For a lot of people, Nutcracker season is a special time. They go to the production with their families and bask in Christmas-themed ballet. However, for others, this season is special for a different reason.

Champaign Urbana Ballet is a pre-professional dance company, located in the Champaign Urbana area. Since its early years in 1999, CU Ballet has performed its rendition of the famous ballet ‘The Nutcracker’ annually. Each year, dancers, staff, crew, and more work hard to put on this show. I met with some of the dancers involved in this year’s performance, who offered some insight into how the production is put together each year.

In case you were unfamiliar, ‘The Nutcracker’ is a ballet production, originally composed by Pyotr Tchaikovsky in 1892. 

Elizabeth Soeng, who was Clara in one cast of the production this year, described it as such: “There’s a party at the beginning with Clara and Fritz, her brother, and everyone is dancing and having fun. Their uncle Drosselmeyer comes in and shows off his work. He has the nutcracker and gives it to Fritz and he doesn’t like it. Clara kind of falls in love with the doll. Fritz tries to take it and it breaks, but Drosselmeyer fixes it. Clara takes the nutcracker and ends up falling asleep with it. The rest of it is a dream. Clara shrinks, the nutcracker becomes life-size and the rats become huge. The nutcracker is fighting the rats. There are a bunch of variations in the Land of Sweets. The Sugar Plum Fairy then puts on a show for Clara. At the end of the battle, everything freezes and slowly disappears. Drosselmeyer comes and takes her out of the dream. She wakes up, and everything is gone.”

While some may think of Nutcracker Season happening sometime around December, work on the production starts much earlier. Planning for the show starts as early as the summer before when older dancers will do what is called a repertoire, and teach younger kids parts they learned previously. Auditions for older dancers start as early as August, and a cast list is created around September. 

Leading up to the performances, William Shunk, who just finished his third Nutcracker production, said, “Rehearsals start around mid-September, and there are weekly rehearsals every Saturday focused on the big scenes, usually with everybody in the scene involved. These rehearsals are usually ~2 hours long, which turns into a day-long commitment when you’re in different scenes. There are also weekday rehearsals centered around specific roles leading up to the performance, which is usually the first weekend of December.

Every year, many, many people put time and effort into the performance, both on and off stage. This season can be draining for the dancers. Ava Teague, a member of CU Ballet who danced four parts in this year’s production of the Nutcracker, explained that the time, effort, and money involved in putting on a production of this scale is often overlooked. She said that ballet, for not even being called a sport, requires a great deal of physicality.

Aside from that, there is also a great deal of sacrifice on the part of the dancers. Elizabeth Seong said, “It’s time-consuming. It does mess with our school schedule. We can’t do a lot of extracurriculars.”

Shanley Davis, who played Fritz and four other parts this year in the Nutcracker, said, “Sports too are completely out of the question, for the risk of injury, which could put you back weeks. You can’t risk it. You need to stay healthy physically and mentally.”

Elizabeth Seong explained that “The ballet experience is really good. The only con is not being able to have time for school. Other than that, the experience is really good.”

There is also a lot of pressure. Ava Teague discussed that there often aren’t a lot of boys who show up to fill the roles. William Shunk says, “Boys can dance too!”

However, putting on this performance isn’t solely a stressful thing for the dancers. William Shunk said, “Being in the Nutcracker has been such an amazing experience since my first time back in 2019. I’ve made so many awesome friends, and physically it’s challenging, but rewarding at the same time, to be able to perform in a production of such scale.”

Elizabeth Seong said, “Everyone has a good experience being able to perform together and rehearse together. A lot of it is pressure. You get stressed to perform, but everyone gets closer together backstage.”

Shanley Davis said, “You get to know a lot of amazing people. It’s a great bonding experience.”

Ava Teague said it was “more friendship, there weren’t a lot of people and now it feels like a family. Sometimes it feels stressful, but the experience outweighs it. It makes me overall more determined and you need to be more determined.

But ballet isn’t just for kids. There are many parents, volunteers, and crew who help with tasks backstage, and do tasks like applying makeup. “Without them,” Lydia Stevens, who danced five parts in the Nutcracker this year, explained,” it wouldn’t be good. The only way you can properly do it is with the whole community.”

On the note of community, there are a few ways you can help out with the production of the Nutcracker. Kids younger than ten can perform without any dance experience, and high schoolers can audition as well. 

Shanley Davis said, “You don’t need to be an amazing dancer to help or support. Volunteer, donate, go; those all help greatly.”

“Anyone who tries out will fit in. There hasn’t been anyone who has been in it and disliked it. We would be happy for anyone to come,” said Lydia Stevens. “It’s a lot of fun.”