For the eighth year in a row, Civic Dance Center in Portage has put on the classic ballet, 'The Nutcracker.'
The Nutcracker is a ballet where a little girl gets a nutcracker for Christmas and the two go off on adventures together. This year’s principal dancers were Anabelle Tokash (Spanish), Lydia Gerike (Russian), Clarissa Tokash (Snow Queen), and Claire Hagen (Red Rose). Along with other leading roles were Shelby Sutphin, Erin Burke and Rachel Stewart.
“This year’s performance is one of the best so far that I have danced it,” said Sutphin, who has danced in eight productions of The Nutcracker. “We have all just worked so hard and improved from last year.”
Ever since owner and artistic director Natalie Kolosci was a little girl and danced in The Nutcracker at age 10, she has always thought the same thing about it.
“It is not only a ballet, but it is a story. A story that has been told many times and more times to come,” Kolosci said.
According to Kolosci, she was also very fortunate with this production as quite a few of her dancers came down with sickness earlier in the week.
“We had almost 20 girls sick, but fortunately all of them were able to perform tonight,” Kolosci said.
The performance means more than just a ballet to some though.
“The Nutcracker means everything to me because of how hard and how long we work on it,” Sutphin said.
Kolosci has many plans for Civic in the future, but cutting The Nutcracker out of the plans is not one she has in mind.
“We will be doing this [The Nutcracker] forever,” Kolosci said.