When the Vancouver Opera Orchestra strikes up the opening notes of Tchaikovsky's classic The Nutcracker, professional dancers will float on to the stage to tell this timeless Christmas story.
Waiting in the wings with the pros from Vancouver's Goh Ballet, as well as visiting artists from the American Ballet Theatre, will be three young dancers from the Tri-Cities.
There's 11-year-old Madeline Rindahl-Foran, who performed in last year's show as a lamb and is excited to take on the role of a soldier this year because she'll be part of the great battle scene, a favourite among many of the young dancers.
"I like the costumes and I like being on stage with the rats, because everyone thinks they're scary," said Rindahl-Foran, a Grade 6 student at Hillcrest middle who also keeps busy with gymnastics and cheerleading.
Performing with such experienced dancers has Rindahl-Foran thinking of the future, and maybe one day dancing as the Snow Queen. "I always worry though if I get a long part that I would forget it," she admitted.
At eight years old, Emma Kelly is making her Nutcracker debut as a mouse and couldn't be happier. It's just the part she wanted, in a ballet her mom has taken her to see each year ever since she can remember.
"I was, like, screaming, 'Yay!'" recalled Kelly, who's in Grade 3 at Cedar Drive elementary, when she learned she got the part. She's been taking every kind of dance class imaginable at K&S Dance in Port Coquitlam starting at the age of two, but this is her first gig with the pros.
"It's really fascinating 'cause you get to see them dance and you get to dance with them, and I really like to dance," she gushed.
And for 12-year-old Michelle Khoo it's the third time she'll dance in the show, the second as a young Clara. This year she'll also get to bite into a juicier, more senior role as a Mirliton, part of the entertainment for Clara and the Nutcracker in the Sugar Plum Fairy's castle.
Khoo said she only "half believed it" when she found out she'd scored the two roles. "They're the two roles I really, really wanted and I didn't think I would get them both."
That success likely comes from Khoo's hard work during the past year. She knew the role of Clara from her first Nutcracker in 2009, and learned the Mirliton steps from her Goh Ballet instructors and by studying the performers from backstage, as well as watching from a video at home.
Each role has its own challenges. As Clara, Khoo needs to draw on her acting skills while the Mirliton role, which is done on pointe, is more technically challenging.
"And the tutu makes it harder because it shows everything - if you're turning out or not, if you're stretching your knee," Khoo said.
And if practice makes perfect, Khoo won't have to worry; during the week she trains five hours a day at the Goh, with another two hours on Saturdays and day-long rehearsals Sundays.
It's a hectic schedule, with homework squeezed in at the library across the street from the Goh (though she saves her trombone practice for home), but Khoo is making it work with help from her teachers and friends.
"It's hard to keep up...but my parents are really supportive," Khoo said. "And it's nice because the Goh Ballet helps me be a better dancer."
The Goh Ballet's critically acclaimed production of The Nutcracker, produced by Chan Hon Goh, former prima ballerina with the National Ballet of Canada, runs Dec. 15 to 18 at the Centre in Vancouver for Performing Arts. Tickets are $28-$78, at www.ticketmaster.ca or 1-855-985-2728.
