Welcome
Thank you for joining Children’s Dance Theater’s 9th annual performance of The
Nutcracker. This year the performance was especially sweet to bring to life as we continue to deal with the changes COVID 19 has brought into our lives. Sixty Six dancers have worked since August to bring this holiday classic to life. With trepidation we began this adventure ensuring that our dancers’ safety was the utmost priority. We achieved this through a smaller cast size, the use of “swings” for the first time in CDT history, a broken-up rehearsal schedule to prevent gathering sizes from getting too large, mask wearing, temperature checks and cleaning, cleaning, cleaning. The Nutcracker is one of the most well-known ballets and it has become a tradition for many of our dancers and their families. One that many of the dancers expressed to me back in June, WE HAVE TO DO NUTCRACKER!
It was a feat that at times felt un-imaginable as our dancers worked tirelessly to not only get back into top dancing shape after our States shutdown, but to do so while wearing masks. Our production team worked hard to restage grandiose sections like our snow and flowers scene that had larger groups dancers on stage into smaller scenes. The finale scene had to be completely overhauled from the classical ballet tradition where the entire cast comes stage in grandeur. We are so grateful to our dancers, the parents and staff who continued to bravely move forward to make this show happen.
For everyone at Children’s Dance Theater, I hope you enjoy this special production of “At home with the Nutcracker”. Stay safe and we look forward to seeing your smiling faces in the audience soon!
Stephanie Cox
Director
