Rodents infest Stahlbaum home for holidays as Juneau Dance Theatre opens 50th season with ‘The Nutcracker’

There was a little bit of magic and a lot of controlled mayhem inside the Juneau Dance Theatre studio Sunday as fully costumed dancers of all ages released the excitement of their upcoming performance.

“I said we need to talk softly,” JDT Artistic Director Zachary Hench said as he addressed youth attired as cheese, mice, soldiers and snowflakes and in party wear. “So we did not do that, so no talking. You all should be close in tight so I do not have to find you.”

From the opening chords of the holiday favorite, with the curtain drawn tight, sister and brother Clara and Fritz try to tantalize the audience’s sense of childhood wonder in the 20th production of the Juneau Dance Theatre’s “The Nutcracker” to open the company’s 50th anniversary season this weekend.

And as the guests arrive across the stage and the curtain opens, wonderment becomes amazement as once again the holiday story of Clara and her Nutcracker doll present begins a journey from a wonderful Christmas gathering into her imaginative land of snowflakes, sweets and dancing artistry.

“Well, it is Christmas Eve,” Hench said of the ballet’s opening scene. “And their family is having a big party like they do every year and they are always, like most kids, wondering what presents they have under the tree.”

Elsie May Carillo, 6, stopped her entrance onto the practice floor in her cheesy costume with an added black hat.

“I am The Big Cheese,” she said. “Because I am big and older than the little ones. I get to wear a pirate hat. Bye!”

And she was off to the stage to sit alongside mice to watch.

Under the watchful note-taking eyes of Hench and JDT ballet master Catherine O’Day, who will be leaving Juneau this year, the dress rehearsal continued. The company is 86 strong this production, 16 of whom are en pointe.

“Live theater is magic,” O’Day said. “And I want the dancers to feel the joy of connecting with the audience.”

Added Hench, “The goal is for the audience to leave the theater having been transported from their daily lives to a fantasy land that evokes the feelings that only the holidays can bring.”

[“Nutcracker” Q&As: JDT Artistic Director Zachary Hench | JDH ballet master Catherine O’Day]

Guest artists Nanako Yamamoto as the Sugar Plum Fairy and Aldeir Monteiro as Cavalier will highlight the ballet. Both are members of the American Repertory Ballet in New Jersey. Yamamoto was born and raised in Japan and Monteiro in Brazil.

“I see the Sugar Plum Fairy as a quintessential, magical ballerina — almost like the embodiment of a dream that many people envision when they think of ballet. To me, she also carries a sense of warmth and a nurturing, almost motherly quality, which likely stems from the many young dancers who look up to her performance. I hope to convey a sense of magic, joy, and the festive spirit of the holiday season. If I can transport the audience into a world filled with love, wonder and the pure joy of ballet, then playing the Sugar Plum Fairy would be deeply meaningful to me.”

Sugar Plum opens Act II with tiny Angels welcoming Clara to the Land of Sweets. In the JDT version, the grand pas de deux will be at the end. Sugar Plum and Cavalier will duet, then Cavalier is solo, then Sugar Plum and then the coda leading into the finale of the ballet.

“With my role in ‘The Nutcracker’ I really want to share the magic and excitement of the holiday season,” Monteiro said. “I’m all about bringing out the joy, innocence and imagination that the story captures. My goal is to take the audience on a journey where dreams and reality mix, making them feel those warm, nostalgic vibes. I want everyone to see just how beautiful dance can be and how it stirs up emotions. Ultimately, I hope my performance resonates with everyone, reminding them that believing in magic and dreams is what makes life special. ”

[“Nutcracker” Q&As: Guest artists Nanako Yamamoto and Aldeir Monteiro]

As rehearsal continues and Clara (Sachiko Marks) and Fritz (Dani Hayes) continue looking through the little peephole on the door to the ballroom/living room, they get mad at each other like brothers and sisters do.

The screen lifts up and they, along with the audience, see the room for the first time and go right to the Christmas presents.

They shake them for possible gift clues until the maid, played by Mya Baird, gets mad at them and leads them off stage.

Baird will turn 18 on Friday. The Juneau-Douglas High School: Yadaa.at Kalé senior will celebrate in perhaps the most glorious way possible as she is also cast in the iconic role of Snow Queen.

“I really just try to have fun,” Baird said of the role. “And try to make it be more like a powerful-esque being. She is supposed to be a fairy that Clara is in awe by and so I try to bring a presence of confidence to the role. Like, really dance it and try to bring in my own style to it. And just have fun. I hope the Snow Queen knows Clara is in awe of her, it is kind of in the choreography that she is but I guess it depends on the Clara year to year how that portrays.”

As the Maid in the opening party scene her presence becomes the guiding light in Clara’s imaginative trip to the Land of Sweets.

“I don’t think it is written in the story that way but it is how it turned out,” Baird said. “Normally at this studio the senior gets the Maid. That’s like a senior’s role, a fun role they get to do. So I guess in this year then the Maid will become the Snow Queen.”

Baird said she feels like the Maid should not be seen or heard, just clean up after the party and keep to herself.

“I think the roles are kind of really opposite of each other,” she said. “Which is kind of cool because they are both in the first act and it is an interesting challenge to separate the styles.”

[Celebrating a 50th with a 20th: Juneau Dance Theatre’s history with “The Nutcracker”]

Dancing since age four’s introduction as a Baby Mouse she had always hoped to be a Snow Queen.

“But I don’t think I could ever had envisioned it,” she said. “Baby Mouse was super fun. I loved it. We didn’t have Cheese at the time so that was the biggest role for the little kids.”

As rehearsal continues parents Frau Stahlbaum (Alisha Falberg) and Herr Stahlbaum (Adam Moser) prepare for the party guests arriving.

“The liveliness, the vastity of the party scene,” Moser, 46, said of what his character tries to express. “Making sure everyone is aware that the parents are having a good time, the kids are having a good time. It is a party for the holidays that we are hosting at our house. And making sure, like any host would, that everyone is having a joyful evening.”

Moser was recruited for the role as his onstage/offstage wife is on the JDT board and teaches dance classes.

“And she asked me nicely several years ago if I would be in the party scene and I said yes. I have been lucky enough to be the lead father for all the years I’ve done this. It is wonderful. I just have to sacrifice the skiing…This morning I was up at seven so I could get up to Eaglecrest before coming here. But it is worth it.”

Falberg, 39, discussed her character.

“My daughter is Clara, and my son Fritz is a real troublemaker,” she said. “We are here to have fun and have the party. I love watching my beautiful daughter dance, but then my naughty, naughty son breaks her Nutcracker. I think the party parents are just there to highlight the children and the drama that is going on.”

Falberg grew up dancing from age five in Michigan.

“My favorite role when I was growing up was the girl doll,” she said. “Our production had two dolls, a girl and a boy, and they were both soldiers, and that was my favorite. We had a house and we were rolled out, doors opened, I got picked up…I played other stuff but that one was my favorite.”

Grandpa and Grandma enter first followed by the party guests, and all the children brought along come rushing in as they haven’t seen each other in, well, a make-believe long time so the excitement to see each other builds.

“I make sure that Grandma (Melissa Patterson) doesn’t make any terrible social blunders,” Bob Fagen, 79, said of his Grandpa role. Over the years he as been a party parent and Mother Ginger, a role that is played by state Sen. Jesse Kiehl this year. “But she makes at least two of them that embarrass Clara and Fritz. I make sure I stay awake even if she is asleep and I lead the line of parents for the last dance…Otherwise I am part of the scenery. I am not the star attraction here but it is really fun to be on stage…I have never been Drosselmeyer, that is above my pay grade.”

Gifts are handed out, and it is time for the children to dance.

“I show that you don’t have to be happy the whole time at something, like, I fall asleep during the show twice maybe on stage,” Zoe Bliss, 12, said of her Party Boy role. She is also in Hot Chocolate Corps. “I still act happy and joyful during the dances. I first started in ‘Nutcracker’ as a soldier…I am also a Mouse, which I am really happy about because when I was a soldier I remember if the mice talked to you it felt so good and it felt like you were so grown up and old if they said hi to you…‘Nutcracker’ is kind of like time with friends. It is the primary thing I do for the holidays. This is my fourth year and it is something I always do and can count on.”

Family friend and magician Frau Drosselmeyer (Hannah Sofhauser) arrives. In some productions this part is a relative, and a male, but in all the part has magic and surprises to show the children.

“I’m trying to bring a little bit of magic to this role,” Sofhauser, 35, said. “In the past, this has been danced by Zach, our artistic director. In this role she is kind of the magician. She is bringing the Nutcracker to life, the tree grows, everything is moving around the stage because of me. So it is a really fun role. It is very dynamic. Acting and a little dancing.”

Sofhauser grew up dancing in western Massachusetts in a studio similar to JDT. Her first role was a party mom.

“Everyone knows the music,” she said. “I just love how accessible it is and I think a large part of that is because of the music, people recognize the music and so when they come to ‘The Nutcracker’ you can just relate to it a little bit more…Obviously it is spreading Christmas joy, but more importantly for me it is just the kids dancing. They work really hard. They work for months and months and months, countless hours in this studio… and then everyone behind the scenes also, Catherine, Zach, Bridget, we have a ton of people working together to make this production possible. A lot of work, but really fun, it is a magical show.”

Drosselmeyer brings two special gifts, the life-size Dancing Doll, played in alternating performances by Abigail Portiles and Aneeyah Bohulano, and the Dancing Bear played by Shaina Fernandez and Sammara Apango.

Portiles, 16, began her “Nutcracker” career at age four as a baby mouse.

“I never envisioned it but I always wanted it,” she said. “I wanted to be the big girl, like with the tutu… When I do Doll, I try my best and think about the most to look like a real robot instead of a person when I do this role. The Doll is a gift from Drosselmeyer to Clara so I want to show the audience that I am the gift and it is the Christmas spirit.”

Fernandez, 16, is another JDT “lifer;” her first role was one of the party children, and she said the “Nutcracker” music is special for her.

“It just brings, like, reminders of the Christmas spirit,” she said. “And JDT is one big family and it is a really fun time. I am a dancing bear, I’m a toy and I’m supposed to be scaring the children. So when I dance I scare them and they run away. I use my hands a lot, I look like a bear, try to make myself look big like a scary bear.”

As the partygoers begin to fade, Clara and Fritz have a confrontation that results in the Nutcracker being broken.

Marks, 11, was a Cheese seven years ago but has grown into the role of Clara.

“I’m trying to express, like, seeing a new world and seeing a bunch of different things than I usually see,” she said. “I am, like, wondering, ‘What is everything, what should I do here, when am I going to leave?’ It is a lot of acting and facial expressions. You have to really pay attention to what is going on around you. It is a lot with your face and you can also move a little bit. And I dance a little bit, in the party scene and then in the second act I am looking at everyone trying to see what everything is.”

Gretta Stearns, 13, is the villain Rat (Mouse) King.

“I am trying to take over Christmas,” Stearns said of her character. “And kill the Nutcracker. I don’t know, I just like the role… I am going to give it all I’ve got and try my best.”

There will be an epic battle between soldiers and mice. The Nutcracker will prevail and is brought to life by the Snow Queen and they lead Clara into Act II and the Land of Sweets.

Sabine Auger, 15, is in the Snow Corps, those energetic, en pointe snowflakes crisscrossing the stage.

“Snow Corps is like a four- or five-minute dance,” she said. “We never go off stage. It is super tiring, you are, like, running around the whole time. You have to smile and show the audience how much fun you are having but also you are about to pass out by the end. But it is a really fun dance. It is one of the most exciting dances I think to watch and perform. The music is so invigorating and you can feel the music rise, you cross the stage a lot. It is a lot of fun. There are a lot of formations, like, really specific locations you go each time and there is a lot of room for error. We have snow wands, which could get caught or dropped…There is a lot of different moving parts to it which is what I think makes it fun and interesting for the audience. It is a really great dance because everyone gets to do it once you reach a certain level. Some lead roles such as Doll or Dew Drop you might not get to do but everyone does Snow and that is a bit of camaraderie to it which I really enjoy.”

Auger moved to Juneau at age nine and began her ‘Nutcracker’ career as a Soldier.

“I’ve grown up with the ‘Nutcracker,’” she said. “It is definitely a part of my Christmas and my dance journey.”

Viktor Bell, 20, is cast as Jonas (Nephew of Drosselmeyer) and the primary role of Nutcracker. Originally from Ukraine, he has performed his whole life in Europe, moving to Juneau just four years ago and joining the JDT faculty.

“For me the main goal is for everybody who is going to come in to see their first ballet, they are going to see it and they are going to go, ‘Wow! I want to do this,’” he said. “Or, ‘I want to do something’ or just be part of a big production like this because Juneau Dance Theatre is incredible at creating moments like this and inspiring young dancers that don’t even know they are dancers yet, just to be themselves and perform.”

This is his third role as Nutcracker.

“Nutcracker is one of those last things where I feel like I belong on stage,” he said. “It just feels really good. It feels really good to be on stage and know that you can inspire somebody… It is a privilege to see dancers growing from different role to different role over the years, just incredible… The thing the audience sees is usually just 1% of it. Nobody knows how many months you’ve been rehearsing and how many costumes have been sewn and how many volunteers it took to rewrap every single present that is on stage. It is a lot of work and a lot of attention to every single detail and it is all to just create the one percent the audience will see.”

Bell, Ginger Patterson, 14, and Autumn Banaszak, 16, are cast in Coffee.

Patterson also dances in the Snow Corps and Flower Corps and is the Coffee lead and Lemon Tea lead.

“The Coffee is kind of a dramatic like mysterious kind of dance,” she said. “It is also a partner dance so you have to maintain chemistry and eye contact with your partner.”

Patterson’s first “Nutcracker” role was as Clara.

“‘Nutcracker’ is this feeling of family,” she said. “It is kind of a full circle moment when you are able to do a part and then when you are older watch someone else do that part. It is kind of like this big family at JDT.”

Banaszak is also in Flower Corps, Marzipan Corps, Snow Corps and a Lead Soldier. Four years ago her first role was a Party Boy.

“Coffee is an important role to me but I feel like Snow is pretty important too because it is really famous and iconic song and dance,” she said. “It is just a powerful part of ‘Nutcracker.’ It is a hard dance, it is showing all the work we put in and how much we work for putting on a big show like ‘Nutcracker’… It is definitely surreal this year. I have thought about it a lot seeing myself do these roles that I looked up to so much when I was younger. I didn’t see myself getting this far but here I am. ‘Nutcracker’ is a way to show the Christmas spirit.”

Lyra Culbreth, 15, is in Snow Corps, Flower Corps, a Lead Soldier, Tea lead and Hot Chocolate lead.

“I love Hot Chocolate because it is the very first dance of Act II in the Land of Sweets,” she said. “I get to bring the energy and set the stage for all the other dances that come out after me which is really fun. The dance itself is so exciting and sassy. I’m just bringing a lot of character to it.”

She began her “Nutcracker” career as an Angel and a Lamb.

“They were the really littles,” she laughed. “I remember being so young and seeing all the older dancers in rehearsals and looking up to them so much. It is crazy to think how long ago that was and now I am exactly where those older dancers were and I get to be a role model for all the younger kids. It has come full circle. ‘Nutcracker’ is a tradition every holiday season, it’s such a big deal and so exciting and nostalgic.”

“The Nutcracker” is famous for its characters, but no production goes forward without the Prop Mistress, the behind-the-scenes go-to called on to do a bit of everything.

“Oh, I don’t have a specific role or anything,” Megan Lujan, 21, said. “I am just here to assist in any way that they need me. I am here, like, if they tell me to do something I do it. I don’t have a job title.”

Lujan danced in the JDT for 15 years. At age five she was a Baby Mouse. She is just home on holiday vacation while earning a college teaching degree.

“I performed ‘The Nutcracker’ and now I have come back to help out,” she said. “I loved dancing the Dew Drop fairy and I also did Sugar Plum, those were my favorite. I think of ‘The Nutcracker’ as the beginning of the Christmas Winter season. I’m like, OK, ‘The Nutcracker’ is out it is finally time to celebrate Christmas. It has become a tradition for so many families here in Juneau that think the same way…I just want the Baby Mice to have so much fun. That is what I loved about it is just getting up on stage, having a blast, having friends by my side and hopefully they are growing into the roles that they see the big girls dancing.”

Two of the production’s most important helpers are Emily Fergusson and Jessica Liska.

“Emily is not only our stage manager responsible for tech and production at the theatre but she also co-coordinates all of the costuming with me,” JDT Executive Director Bridget Lujan said. “Jessica is our backstage volunteer coordinator, she direct all of the parent volunteers responsible for making sure our younger dancers have their props, costume pieces, correct hair and makeup, etc.”

[Full cast listing by scene]

All in all, the cast and crew have come together to showcase another magical moment in the world of dance.

Sarah Alldredge, 5, is not sure what she likes about dancing but she enjoys her part as Cheese.

“I have to run on stage and sit down,” she said. “I have to stay away from mice.”

• Contact Klas Stolpe at klas.stolpe@juneauempire.com.

Know & Go

What: “The Nutcracker”

When: 7 p.m. Friday, Dec. 6 ; 2 p.m. and 7 p.m. Saturday, Dec. 7; and 2 p.m. Sunday, Dec. 8; Special 1 p.m. Land of Sweets Tea & Tour Saturday/Sunday, Dec. 7/8.

Where: Juneau-Douglas High School: Yadaa.at Kalé Auditorium, 1639 Glacier Ave.

Admission: $35 adult (18-64); $30 senior (65+); $25 teen (13-17); $20 child (2-12); Under age 2 lap children are free. Special: $55 for the 1 p.m. Land of Sweets Tea and Tour, which includes a fanciful afternoon with a story, cookie decorating, treats, candy bar, admission to the 2 p.m. matinee ballet and premium VIP seating (you do not need to purchase separate tickets to The Nutcracker).