15 Photos
The dancers warm up prior to the production of the "Nutcracker." DANA SHAW
A pre-show hug.
Lacing up the pointe shoes.
Tara Powers and Costume Designer Kate McManus make last minute alterations.
Talula Tracy puts on her makeup.
Last minute costume stitching.
Ammiel Sobey gets help with his costume from Kate Mc Manus.
Elizabeth Falkowski and Stella Fisher.
Caroline Popadick and Allison Dubin in the wings.
The soldiers play video games while waiting to go on.
The mice keep busy before their cue.
Waiting to go on.
Getting ready backstage.
Waiting in the wings.
Waiting in the wings.
For 15 years, dancers from Hampton Ballet Theatre School have brought angels, a devilish Mouse King and a bevy of sweets to life in their annual production of Pyotr Ilyich Tchaikovsky’s beloved “Nutcracker.” For HBTS founder and director Sara Jo Strickland, this is a decades-long holiday tradition that first began with her lighting up the stage as the Sugar Plum Fairy, as a former principal dancer and teacher at Danse Arts in Bridgehampton.
While this year’s performance — on Friday, December 13, at 7 p.m., Saturday, December 14, at 1 p.m. and 7 p.m. and on Sunday, December 15, at 2 p.m. — returns the ballet troupe to Guild Hall in East Hampton, last year’s production was staged at Southampton High School.
It was the first weekend in December. The massive cast and support crew filled the backstage area, with dancers warming up for the show before heading backstage to perfect makeup and hair in advance of the curtain opening on the evening’s performance.
Backstage is a collaborative place — cast and crew helping each other, teasing hair, applying mascara and red lipstick to young children dressed as soldiers and mice, adjusting crowns on prima ballerinas, as younger dancers look on with awe. Yuka Silvera, a designer and seamstress behind Hampton Ballet Theatre School’s gorgeous set of costumes — also designed by Strickland and Kate McManus — can be found before each show making last-minute repairs and alterations, helping children and teens into her beautiful creations.
The energy built as showtime neared — the stage director giving dancers a “Five Minutes to Show” warning. In the wings, as the show begins, average children and teens transform as they take the stage, in costume, performing one of the most iconic shows of the holiday season.
Dana Shaw on Nov 19, 2024