Dancers and actors bring “The Nutcracker” to three local stages
Pages to Pirouettes presents its unique production of “The Nutcracker” in three public performances this season.
Celebrating the arts of storytelling and ballet, Pages to Pirouettes brings its charming versions of the great ballets to community audiences. An actor first reads the story, then the audience sees it come to life through dance, music, and costume. At the close of the performance, the audience gets to try some ballet moves and visit with the performers.
“We bring ballet and storytelling to communities with an ‘up-close’ experience that is still magical,” says Susan Cade, artistic director of Pages to Pirouettes. “Our performances, under an hour, truly delight all ages.”
Two churches and the Central branch of the Free Library are this year’s venues for this beloved holiday favorite performed to the enchanting music of Tchaikovsky:
The Nov. 30 performance at Christ Lutheran Church in Upper Darby at 7 p.m., includes dinner before the show and benefits the Upper Darby Outreach Corporation’s after school program. Tickets are $7/5, check www.clcud.org for more information.
St. Paul’s Lutheran Church in Glenside is hosting a performance Dec. 2, at 3 p.m., followed by an ice cream social. Tickets are a $10 donation at the door, check, stpaulsglenside.org for more information.
The performance at the Free Library’s Central branch Dec. 10 at 2 p.m. is presented by Sundays on Stage program. Check libwww.freelibrary.org/programs/sundays-stage/ for more information.
Cade’s company of actors and dancers has two versions of each ballet in its repertoire—one with the core company and the other with guest artists— so the production can be scaled to the size of the venue’s stage. Cade also builds multigenerational casts.
For the performance at St. Paul’s, the cast of 41 dancers and actors ranges from age 12 to 92 and includes 20 residents of Shannondell at Valley Forge senior community, Cade’s ballet students there, who mingle as party guests and waltz as candied flowers. Cade’s student Jeannie Pachella, a spry and sturdy 92, plays an irrepressible flirt, distracting the Stahlbaum’s butler, played by Al Ikeda, from his duties.