BERKSHIRES, MA “Nutcracker! Magical Christmas Ballet” is coming to Midland at the Wagner Noël Performing Arts Center. Auditions for local children to participate in the performance will be held in partnership with Dance Expressions, on Sept. 24. Company soloist, Sarah, will conduct the audition and direct the first rehearsals. Young dancers ages 6 to 17 are invited to audition through “Nutcracker! Magical Christmas Ballet’s” unique “Dance with Us” program.
Over its 31-year history of touring North America, close to 100,000 children have performed with the international casts of “Nutcracker! Magical Christmas Ballet.” The 2024 production stars principal dancers from the great opera houses of Ukraine and features 40 world-class artists from Japan, Italy, Turkey, and more providing young dancers with an exceptional opportunity for artistic growth and cross-cultural enrichment, a news release said.
The audition is open to all area dance students. Children will be cast as Party Children, Mice, Little Snowflakes, Star Sprites, Star Maidens, and junior corps de ballet for the Act II Spanish, Chinese, French, Arabian, and Slavic variations. All costumes are provided by the company.
Following the initial rehearsal period with Sarah, the children’s cast will rehearse prior to the show for 6-8 weeks at Dance Expressions, in advance of the performance(s) at the Wagner Noël Performing Arts Center. On performance day, the children’s cast will be fitted for hand-sewn costumes designed by the highly acclaimed Arthur Oliver, followed by a dress rehearsal and the performance. There is no instruction fee charged, but “Nutcracker! Magical Christmas Ballet” requires a minimum $50 Participation Fee from all youth dancers who are cast in the performance to help cover costume maintenance and other related administrative costs. Dancers can sign up to audition today at nutcracker.com/dance.
For more information or to purchase tickets, visit nutcracker.com. Special pricing is available for groups. Call 800-320-1733 or email [email protected].
Talmi Entertainment is the exclusive producers and representatives for “Nutcracker! Magical Christmas Ballet,” now celebrating its 32nd year with an over 85-city tour of North America. During its long history of producing the finest in classical ballet, Talmi Entertainment received critical acclaim for its Cynthia Gregory’s Celebration Tour, Leonid and Valentina Kozlov’s Bolshoi to Broadway tour, and full-length productions of “Swan Lake,” “Cinderella,” “Romeo and Juliet,” and “Sleeping Beauty” expressing the beauty of classical ballet technique and storytelling.
With a deep pioneering legacy and a message of transcendent humanism and liberation from the Iron Curtain, Talmi produced the Glasnost and Leap to Freedom ballet tours of the late 80s that launched newly freed former Soviet ballet artists onto the international stage. In 1993, “Moscow Ballet’s Great Russian Nutcracker” was born of the desire to share this world-class art form and message of freedom with a new and diverse audience. “2023 marked a new epoch in which artists and creators move into the future with ‘Nutcracker! Magical Christmas Ballet,’” said Founder, Akiva Talmi (producer, composer, and recipient of the Metropolitan Opera Guild, Richard Rodgers, and Leonard Bernstein Awards)
