Hurricane Doesn't Hamper Rehearsals for 'The Nutcracker'

Hurricane Sandy did little to stop the momentum of rehearsals for "The Nutcracker," which is still set to take place just after Thanksgiving at Windham High School.

New England Dance Ensemble Director Barbara Mullen said that the local dancers – 96 in all – practice Friday through Sunday, so the weather event did not tamper with those preparations.

The crammed schedule does make for some long weekends.

"On a weekend, (the dancers) are probably rehearsing between 16 and 20 hours," Mullen said. 

She praised the Windham members of the cast for their hard-work and dilligence, amazed at the 9-year-olds who show up to the Londondery Dance Academy studio, armed with notebooks.

Two cast leads include Connor Bermingham, who spent the summer dancing in the prestigious Alvin Ailey summer program in New York City, and Danielle Fitzgerald, who is a senior on the high honor roll at WHS.

Bermingham, according to Mullen, now attends Pinkerton Academy. He also performed in the show last year as the Nutcracker Prince.

Mullen is known for bringing talented professional dancers in from New York to join the cast, and this year is no different. 

But those dancers will not arrive until just before the first show, meaning that dancers like Fitzgerald are in difficult positions.

"That is quite challenging when you are a local student," Mullen said.

Fitzgerald will perform on the WHS stage with Sterling Baca, a 19-year-old Colorado native from the American Ballet Theatre company. Bermingham has actually been preparing with Fitzgerald in rehearsals.

Mullen also praised the dynamic of mixing the professionals in with the local kids.

"How fabulous if you're a 9, 10 (or) 17-year-old kid in Windham or Londonderry and say 'wow, I'm performing with these people, that's amazing,'" she said.

While most of the professionals are coming from NYC, none faced the dreadful impact of this week's weather. Many of the dancers live in areas of the city that were not hit as hard by the superstorm, and all were out of the country performing abroad when Sandy hit.

Mullen has been organizing a professional version of "The Nutracker" for about a decade. For years, she pieced together a smaller production and traveled to schools within a 20-mile radius of Londonderry. The idea was to bring the arts to children who couldn't afford to go to the ballet.

Costume fitting for the show is complete and the dancers will be in the WHS theater one week before the show.