The Great Russian Nutcracker is an iconic holiday program, and the Moscow Ballet is bringing the performance to Paducah's Carson Center. The performance will feature some local ballerinas, too. WKMS’ Nicole Erwin went to the audition session and brings us this report from a principal ballerina and a local teen who will be in the spotlight.
In a small dance studio at the The Rhythm Factory School of Performing Arts in Paducah, three teenage girls practice for their upcoming roles in the Moscow Ballet’s Great Russian Nutcracker.
Leading the lesson is the Moscow Ballet audition director and professional ballerina Alisa Bolotnikova.
“I think it's a very big chance for children to go to stage with professional ballerinas and dancers, Moscow Ballet,” said Bolotnikova.
The ballet features award winning principal dancers who tell the story of a girl who falls in love with the Nutcracker on Christmas eve.
Bolotnikova will also be performing the demanding soloist Russian Variation in Act II of the play. She says an opportunity for young dancers to perform with 40 professional ballerinas is truly a once in a life-time opportunity.
“I didn't have this chance at my age,” said Bolotnikova.
Bolotnikova recalls being 6 years old when her mother first took her to a ballet school.
“There was a manikin with a beautiful ballet dress, beautiful tutu. I was very excited about the dress and the director of the ballet school asked, if I would like to have such dress. I said of course! And she invited me to come to the school, then I come to the school and put on my first ballet shoes, I felt that I need a dress match shoes,” said Bolotnikova.
Bolotnikova studied the Vaganova Ballet method and graduated from the National Ballet School of Moldova. The vaganova style fuses elements of the romantic traditional French style with the athleticism of Italian technique, involving the whole body in every movement, an approach believed to increase consciousness in each physical development.
“If you want to be a ballet dancer you need to love ballet very much and also to be dedicated to all the hard work which will make more women perfect dance, day after day for many years. When you are young you need to understand that you will have no time for games and spending time with friends, and its training every day. It's very difficult, and to feed the body style of a professional ballerina depends on an individual,” said Bolotnikova.
The strict training also requires a strict diet.
“My teachers always say to me...you need to eat everyday soup, meat and vegetables. You can't, no food. Sometimes ballerina, no food, no eat because she want to be slim. But my teacher always said, you need to eat because you need power and you need hard work,” expressed Bolotnikova.
The hard work ethic is exactly what Bolotnikova is looking for in her dancers as she selects the young members to perform in the upcoming show.
"We are looking for talented children who love ballet, who love dance, who want to dance with us in great Russian Nutcracker. We have many roles for children, we have many roles..." said Bolotnikova.
Seventeen-year-old Katherine Renick of Murray is one of the 20 local dancers chosen for this year’s Nutcracker ballet.
“I've been dancing a little over 10 years, I started when I was in the first grade,” said Renick.
Renick will be dancing in the Spanish Variation in Act II.
“I'm doing a point variation with another dancer as the Russian ballerinas I think are taking the center stage we will be on the side doing a point variation so that is very exciting,” said Renick.
Renick explains that a point variation is just as it sounds.
“People think traditionally ballet slippers, but pointe shoes, that's the ballerinas on their toes... So a variation just means some variation of that. It hurts quite a bit but it’s fun to defy gravity,” said Renick smiling.
Renick hopes her hard work will pay off by filling the Carson Center on December 13th.
