Community Corner
Calabasas Residents & Students Dance in 50th Nutcracker Anniversary
Sold-Out Event is available for Streaming for limited time during Holiday Season
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Westside Ballet of Santa Monica’s 50th-anniversary celebration of "The Nutcracker” — Southern California's longest-running rendition—which ran Nov. 25 - Dec. 3, for eight sold-out public performances at The Eli and Edythe Broad Stage in Santa Monica—included several local Calabasas and Valley residents and student/ pre-professional dancers.
FREE COMMUNITY VIEWING LINKS: As all eight public performances of the Nutcracker were sold out for over three weeks, the producers announced they are offering a free Vimeo and YouTube link for the community to stream the performance on their home entertainment systems for a limited time during the 2023 Holiday Season.
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Three illustrious Westside Ballet alumni—special guest stars Tiler Peck, Lucia Connolly, and Lyrica Woodruff—each took center stage as the enchanting Sugar Plum Fairy. These extraordinary artists return to their roots, making these performances truly memorable.
Five Valley residents and students were among the over 107 student and pre-professional dancers who performed.
Calabasas resident Sofia Strauser (15), a sophomore (hons) at Harvard Westlake School, has danced at Westside Ballet since she was 12 years old. This was her fourth Nutcracker performance at Westside Ballet. Past Nutcracker roles include roles such as Peppermint Candy Soloist and Center Chinese. This year she is featured as the Snow Queen, Lead Marzipan Mirliton, and as a Demi Flower in the iconic Waltz of the Flowers.
"Grace and grit are a hand-in-hand experience that most dancers encounter as they prepare for any show, including myself," says Sofia. "To me, you can’t achieve grace without undergoing grit first. Pain, difficulty, and challenge are all hardships that I face when rehearsing, but the outcome from the hard work I put in, is always pure happiness when I enter the stage and feel the glow of the lights hit me. It all feels surreal and a dream come true which makes all of the undeniably difficult work worth it."
Another Calabasas resident Ivy Clinton (13) performed her first Nutcracker performance as a part of the Peppermint Candy corps and as a side Russian Girl. Ivy recently received the citizenship award for helping other students and teachers at A.C. Stelle Middle School.
Zoe White (14) of Tarzana is a freshman at New WestSchool in West LA and has danced at Westside Ballet since she was 6 years old. This year she was showcased in the featured roll of the dancing mechanical doll, as well as in the corps of the Peppermint Candy dance and the Walz of the Flowers in the Land of the Sweets.
Zoe shares, "I love to ski, surf, read, and travel. I’m an all-honors student and excel in math, English, biology, and love my school art program." She hopes to pursue a dance career and also intends to go to college!
Grace Schroeder (16) of Sherman Oaks performed the demanding Snow corps, as a Marzipan Mirliton, Flower, and as a Victorian Party Parent.
Zola Maksimovic (14) is in advanced honors at Louis Armstrong Middle School in Sherman Oaks. Besides dancing with Westside Ballet, she is the Dance Caption of her school dance team, has danced in many musical theater productions as well as Los Angeles Musical Theater, Actor’s Gang, Lee Strasberg, and YADA. This year Zola danced as a Peppermint and Flower and shares, "My mom took me to see Westside Ballet’s Nutcracker since I was 4 years old. I’m still in awe that I am now the one on stage taking part in this amazing production!"
Westside Ballet’s “Nutcracker” retains the most memorable traditional characters and iconic moments—including a tree that grows, a firing cannon, Angels gliding on clouds, and falling snow over a stunning corps de ballet. Set to the majestic score of Tchaikovsky led by The Santa Monica College Symphony Orchestra, this year's milestone production amazed audiences with newly enhanced set designs and 225 costumes.
A Los Angeles holiday tradition for all ages since 1973, Westside Ballet’s version of the classic preserves the spirit of choreographer George Balanchine as carried on by Westside’s co-founder Yvonne Mounsey, who pioneered the role of Center Spanish while a New York City Ballet principal dancer.
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