PORT ANGELES — This is “pretty difficult,” the teenager reports, but it is also brilliantly fun.
So says Joie Darminio of Sequim, one of the performers in “The Nutcracker,” a difficult-fun production blending a local cast with the visiting Northwest Ballet Theatre.
Joie, 13, is practicing as fast as she can — has been for months — for just two performances: at 7 p.m. Saturday and 2 p.m. Sunday at the Port Angeles High School Performing Arts Center, 304 E. Park Ave.
More than 100 dancers, teachers and choreographers are coming together in this ballet, born at auditions last summer.
An en pointe ballet student at Aspire Academy in Sequim, Joie dances the role of the Harlequin Doll in “The Nutcracker.”
Local dancers, too
In her blue, yellow, crimson and black costume, she will appear with about four dozen performers from Northwest Ballet Theatre of Bellingham, the company invited here by the Juan de Fuca Foundation for the Arts.
It was early September when company artistic director John Paul Bishop held tryouts in Port Angeles, and cast more than 40 young dancers from four local schools: Aspire Academy, Sequim Ballet, Port Angeles Dance Center and the Ballet Workshop of Port Angeles.
Inclusive cast
The local cast ranges in age from 6 to 15, said Kayla Oakes, a Juan de Fuca Foundation board member and one of the freelance dance teachers and choreographers working behind the scenes.
Oakes and Bishop were determined to produce an inclusive “Nutcracker:” Bishop decided to cast everyone who came to the audition, while Oakes helped assemble dance professionals from across Clallam County.
Their ballet emphasizes the pure joy of dance. This one, Bishop said, is not about the splashy sets and special effects seen among the hundreds of “Nutcrackers” across the country.
“I’m a stickler for tradition,” he said. “I change things every year, but I keep to the original choreography, which I think is very beautiful.
‘Athletic dancing’
“There is a lot of refined dancing, and a lot of athletic dancing,” to Tchaikovsky’s 122-year-old “Nutcracker Suite.”
The music is recorded, Bishop said, adding that in past years he’s staged the ballet with a live orchestra, but that proved too costly this time.
Eden Batson, 14, landed the role of the Moor Doll, which she calls “incredibly challenging.” Another Aspire student, she is thrilled to be cast in this ballet.
She reports that her solo is 44 seconds long, with “a total of probably 30 jumps and 20 turns.
“We have to make it look easy,” Eden added.
“My dancers are excited to do a road trip,” said Bishop. “They’re a hardy bunch,” including a number of high school and Western Washington University students.
16 years
Bishop, 56, was a boy of 8 when he danced in his first “Nutcracker.” He has been staging the ballet for 16 years now.
With its story of a young girl’s awakening to love at Christmas time, Bishop believes, the ballet still has the power to enchant both audience and dancers.
“Something in the story; something in the music,” he said, “can bring all ages together.”
Oakes saw this happen too.
She hailed her fellow dance teachers who, like she did, donated time and rehearsal space to make “The Nutcracker” reality: Cheryl Koenig and Kate Long of the Ballet Workshop, freelancer Anna Pederson, Laurel Herrera of Sequim Ballet, Aspire’s Rachel Colthorp and Mary Marcial of the Port Angeles Dance Center.
“It was a great collaborative effort,” Oakes said.
“It’s a total experience,” Bishop added. “It’s the excitement of the season,” all wrapped up in a graceful package.
