We found some snow in our tent while camping in the Queensland outback and a flake even turned up on our apartment floor in Singapore!

Heidi Zolker & Tim Coleman

Thinking back on our time at Sacramento Ballet, some of our fondest memories are of Nutcracker. It was a fantastic time of year for us and one we always looked forward to. It always amazed us how the show came together so smoothly. Most of the dancers already knew the choreography so the rehearsal period was short and snappy and then we could look forward to a nice long run in the theater - an opportunity to really settle on the stage and enjoy performing. The performances themselves always ran like clockwork. The crew backstage always knew what was going on and the dressers never let us miss a quick change. Not to mention the feat of organization it was to get all those kids made-up, in costume, and on stage without losing any along the way. Having a huge number of children involved really made Sacramento's Nutcracker unique. All the kids and their families were involved with the rehearsals and preparations, sharing the experience with the dancers and making us all feel like one big (very big!) family. There was a great feeling of community surrounding the company at Nutcracker time. We were reminded that we were a part of something special and that we had a very important job - to show the kids, as well as the audience, the magic of performing.

But, the most magical part of Ron's Nutcracker - and we both agree - was the snow scene. The music, set, costumes and choreography (well refined after many years) are beautiful and when you couple them with a veritable blizzard of snow you have something truly magical. After several minutes of severe snowfall you could barely see the other side of the stage and the snow swished ahead of your feet as you jumped. It got in your eyes and mouth and found its way down into parts of your costume you never thought would be possible. It certainly took some getting used to but the effect from the audience is spectacular.For us the feeling of entering the stage as Snow King and Queen, on that huge sled, to the most beautiful piece of music in the ballet, just as the snow starts falling, to meet the Nutcracker and Clara is one we will never forget.  We are often reminded of Nutcracker season, as we still find little bits of snow falling out of belongings even now. We found some snow in our tent while camping in the Queensland outback and a flake even turned up on our apartment floor in Singapore!

Thank you Ron for giving us these memories (and snowflakes) and congratulations on 25 years! 

Heidi Zolker & Timothy Coleman

Bonus Photo: Heidi & Tim as Double Candy Cane!
A very special treat for us, as well as the audience.

I think dancing in the Nutcracker, no matter what the role--no matter how large or small--is an absolute joy and it has the ability to be wonderfully transformative.

When I think of my time in Sacramento Ballet there are many magical moments. During the Nutcracker season I was fortunate to be able to dance many roles that meant a lot to me including Snow Queen, Arabian, Rose and the Sugar Plum Fairy. But, I have never had so much fun on stage as when I was in the role of the Governess in the Party Scene. When I first began learning the role, it was specific counts and blocking, but as time went on, it transformed and took on a life of its own. Myself as the governess and the two maids were completely in the moment and enjoying every minute of it. There are memories from performing that role that I am sure will continue to make me smile fifty years from now.  

I think dancing in the Nutcracker, no matter what the role--no matter how large or small--is an absolute joy and it has the ability to be wonderfully transformative. 

~ Annali Rose

I have so many Nutcracker memories!

My first experience with the Sacramento Ballet's production of The Nutcracker was not wholly a good one.  This happened long before Ron Cunningham came on the scene.  Barbara Crockett was still the Artistic Director and the company had not attained professional status yet; the ballet studios were downtown on H Street and they were dinky by today's standards.  I was 10 years old and I went to the audition (by height) for Soldiers.  I was turned away.  I didn't realize I really wanted to be in the production, until I was told I wasn't good enough.  This made me first: cry, and second: get back in the studio and work really hard.  I made the part of Soldier the following year, and was in the 1976 production.  It was difficult for me to count the music, I was the smallest Soldier and I had to lead out downstage.  I got yelled at a lot in rehearsals because I kept missing the entrance, but finally got the hang of it.  Clearly I was not ready for that role the previous year!  This experience helped me greatly along the way in my career.  Just because I wanted a role didn't mean I would get it, or that I was right for it.  Knowing I could persevere and work hard enough at 10 years of age, made me pretty sure I could do that as a pre-profesional and ultimately as a professional dancer.  That casting board is always on our minds . . . 

• In Ron's first year as Artistic Director, he sort of inherited me as a dancer.  I had been dancing in the company for the two or three years it had been professional, and when he came in to audition us, he kept me.  I loved working with him!  He was especially entertaining during the Nutcracker rehearsal period (although I found him to be entertaining most of the time).  He had great stories to tell about his previous experiences.  He has always been a fabulous Uncle Drosselmeyer.  Comic timing is one of his strong suits, and he has many!  We always rehearsed Party Scene at the end of the day, which made sense because it was not physically taxing, and he must have been exhausted by the time we got to those rehearsals.  I remember rehearsing at the Eastern Star Temple, which was sort of darkly lit, and having barely enough energy to pay attention.  Those rehearsals were a challenge.  To make matters worse -- or better, depending on how you looked at it -- the two funniest men ever were in the same rehearsal: Robert Kelley and Steve Wolf.  Those two could make me cry from laughter within seconds.  They both wanted to be serious, but were basically incapable, especially in the Temple at night with that Party Scene music playing.  We had so much fun.  I am glad (and impressed) that Ron survived those rehearsals.

• One of the most hilarious experiences Nutcracker ever brought me was when Alex Cunningham was about 4 years old.  She was sitting up front in a bar stool which swung around and she was mimicking her father in rehearsal.  He was giving us instructions about the freeze in the Party Scene, and she was doing a spot-on impersonation of him.  I thought I was going to pee my pants.  But it was the end of the day and we were all tired, I'm sure Ron was tired as well, so I did my best to hold it together.  It was all I could do to get through that rehearsal.  Really, if I had a video camera, she would have been on America's Funniest Home Videos.  Who knew at the time that little Alex would turn out to be one of the most beautiful dancers Sacramento Ballet ever had?  She definitely inherited her father's sense of humor at a young age.  Ron never saw her mimicking him -- I'm sure he wouldn't have been happy at that moment.  But she kept a room full of dancers entertained for at least an hour with her antics, and she managed not to get caught - smart girl!

• One year we had 5 couples rehearsing Snow Pas de Deux.  It would have been around the early nineties.  The fifth couple was a young couple, I think they were both apprentices, and this was their first big roles.  They were both beautiful dancers and were doing a great job in rehearsals.  One day, Ron announced to all of us that the 5th cast would be unable to perform because there was no way to cover the young man's role in the Battle Scene while he was doing Snow.  He was a Mouse.  So I volunteered to do his Mouse part for him that performance (or were there two?).  I had never even watched a rehearsal of the Battle Scene, so I had no clue what this entailed, but I figured for the most part it meant putting on one of those big Mouse costumes and scurrying around.  I was mostly right, except there is definitely choreography for the Mice!  I think Ron took a few minutes and talked me through what the role was, then showed me this little girl I had to pick up at one point.  I think I had one run-through on stage before the performance.  It was really pretty scary, I had at the most a vague idea of what I was doing.  Mostly I tried to follow the other mice, but it was really hard to see out of those heads!  I hope I didn't mess up the whole scene.  And that little girl was heavy!  I remember barely being able to pick her up.  Anyway, the Snow Pas de Deux, as I remember it, went really well and I was so happy to be able to help give them a chance to perform it.  That Snow Queen has been a principal dancer with Atlanta Ballet for years now . . . I like to think that my stint as a clueless Mouse helped her along her way to success as a dancer.  The great thing was: no one knew which Mouse I was because of the costume!

• Nina Baratova and I shared a dressing room backstage for something like ten years, always the same room.  After every Nutcracker performance, without fail, Ron would walk by, knock on the door and say "Great job, ladies!".  Nina and I looked at each other the one performance I wasn't dancing in at all, and she was a Maid in the Party Scene, and laughed.  The sentiment to never forget his dancers rung true and we appreciated it, even if we did laugh that one day.  That, or she was one heck of a Maid!

• Sometime late eighties or early nineties, we were doing shows in the mornings for schoolchildren.  After I was finished dancing, I went out front to watch the second act.  Halfway through the Waltz of the Flowers, the power went out.  Who knows what happened.  The theater back-up generators came on, but the dancers were in work lights.  I'll never forget, it was as though planned and rehearsed: the Flowers got in straight lines and stood in B+.  Immediately, as though it had been rehearsed!  Amazing.  I don't know what got into them or how they all knew to do that, but they did.  Then the curtain came in and I guess the power came back on.  The curtain opened on the Grand Pas de Deux, and the show went on from there as though nothing had happened.  

• One day Carinne decided she wanted to surprise Ron onstage.  He was doing the role of Dr. Drosselmeyer (or is it Uncle, I can never remember) and I was Clara's mother.  Carinne asked me if she could do my part that day.  I think I was also doing Snow Queen, so I was happy not to do that quick change, and I gave my blessing -- which I would have done anyway.  So, without any rehearsal, Carinne got made up and put on that big party dress and my shoes -- I wore a 8.5 and I think she's probably a 5 or 6.  She was great in the scene, even though the shoes were off her feet most of the time, flopping around but held on by the ankle strap.  I can't believe she didn't hurt herself in them.  As I remember, Ron was pretty surprised to see her onstage, as were all the other dancers.  

• The most important thing I learned from Ron doing his Nutcracker all those years, is that it's all about the children.  There are roles large and small, for every age and ability and he does the greatest job of showing them to their best advantage.  If a group of similarly talented or trained children auditioned for him, he would create a new role for them.  I remember when he added the Candycanes to what used to be a solo for a company dancer.  He knows how to get them excited about dance, and he also realizes that the kids in the audience are just as important.  I've taken this with me in our productions in Santa Cruz and always remember that Nutcracker is for and about the children.  He's right - Thank you, Ron!

~ Diane McLarty Cypher

Sacramento Ballet dancer 1980-1997 (or something like that)

Two standing ovations and a well deserved day off

Snow Scene, photo by Keith Sutter

Our first weekend of Nutcracker performances in Sacramento were wonderfully well received with standing ovations opening night and Sunday matinee.  It seems impossible that just last Monday the dancers walked into the theater for the first time. Since then we blocked three or more casts of the entire ballet, had two dress rehearsals, a 10am school performance, four regular performances attended by over 8500 people, and a magical Sugar Plum Fairy Tea following Sunday's matinee.  The Tea was held at the elegant Hyatt Hotel for 500 girls, boys, moms, dads and grandparents, all in their finest holiday attire. The entire company participates in the Tea so we had 26 costumed characters strolling through the Ballroom to the delight of everyone.  A particular favorite photo opt this year was with the Mouse King.

Today was the dancers well deserved day off, most likely filled with visits to the chiropractor, massages, laundry, grocery shopping, and maybe even an afternoon nap.  Tomorrow, the dancers return to the studio for morning class and rehearsals that run until 6:30. Many times I am asked, what do we still need to rehearse since the show has already opened?  The answer is "lots." We have cast changes, dancers working with different partners, more fine tuning, and always more nuance to discover.  A large portion of the day will be devoted to working on The Great Gatsby.  Ron is very inspired by the project and eagerly looks forward to getting into the studio to create more dances. It is remarkable how many ballets a dancer can keep in their head and in their body at any one time.

What impressed me most of all about last week's performances was the incredible sense of confidence and pride that grew with each performance among the children in the cast.  To see their smiles grow, their faces project to the last row of the 2nd tier, and their posture assume more authority with each performance reminds me that The Nutcracker can be a life changing experience.

At the Sacramento Ballet we believe in miracles and magic!

If you missed us last week, catch us this week.

Carinne Binda
Artistic Director

Finale, photo by Keith Sutter

Arabian, photo by Keith Sutter

SPF Pas de Deux, photo by Keith Sutter

Rose, photo by Keith Sutter

"Popper", photo by Keith Sutter

Spanish, photo by Keith Sutter

Big Mice, photo by Keith Sutter

"I got to sleep with curlers in my hair, wear lipstick, miss school, and be surrounded by real ballerinas."

Tara as Baby Mouse in 1989
with the Christmas Dolls and Ron Cunningham
as Dr. Drosselmeyer

My first Nutctacker was in 1988, which I believe was also Ron Cunningham's first year with Sacramento Ballet. That first year I played a Christmas Doll in the battle scene, and to my 5 year old self, this was the most exciting thing I had ever experienced. I got to sleep with curlers in my hair, wear lipstick, miss school, and be surrounded by real ballerinas. It was my first exposure to ballet, and was the beginning of a lifelong love and appreciation of the art. One of my favorite memories of being a child in Nutcracker was running around from dressing room to dressing room asking the dancers for their old pointe shoes. I had dozens of them in my bedroom, all autographed. I loved them more than any of my toys and would spend hours arranging them on my shelves and trying them on, attempting to dance on pointe. I continued to dance children's roles from 1988- 1996 and it was something that I looked forward to year after year. My favorite role came in 1989 when I played the Baby Mouse. I had dreamed all year of playing this part and was so excited when I actually got it! I loved my costume, and my whiskers and mouse nose were applied with black electrical tape. Part of the role was to shoot a toy gun that sprouted a red flag at a precise second in the music. This seemed like a very important job to me, so I practiced over and over again in my parents living room to a cassette tape. 

Tara Bradley

"There is a true feeling of wonderment and joy that is palpable with all those beaming young faces in the audience."

Carinne Binda Cunningham

Tonight is opening night of the Nutcracker and all day I have been thinking how special the many weeks that we have spent preparing this magical production.  For the casts of children it begins in September with auditions and the first rehearsals. For the company dancers it begins late October or early November.  By mid-November the children begin rehearsing with the company dancers and that is always a thrilling experience. By December we are in the theater, first on a bare stage and within 3 1/2 days performing with scenery, lights, costumes, thanks to our outstanding and dedicated theater crew and the many dozens of volunteers that seem to love the Nutcracker as much as Ron and I do. Yesterday morning we did our first performance at 10am for over 2000 young school children and that is always a very special show.  The theater is electric with excitement.  There is a true feeling of wonderment and joy that is palpable with all those beaming young faces in the audience.  Yes, it is hard for dancers to arrive at the theater, many by 7am to prepare for class, then a last minute practice on stage, putting on stage make up, preparing hair, getting into costume, and a myriad of other tasks before taking that first step on stage, but once the dancers hear the cheers from the children in the audience, they forget how early they had to wake up and remember why they love to dance. 

Nutcracker is a finely tuned and efficient "machine" at the Sacramento Ballet, always running smoothly with problems easily solved even when they catch us by surprise.  For the dancers, it is the one ballet they return to year after year, sometimes dancing the same roles or acquiring new roles.  This year it has been a joy to see so many of our seasoned dancers blossom with new artistry and our new dancers learning the process and thriving in such a short amount of time. We have so many outstanding casts in multiple roles that keep this production feeling fresh at every performance.

My Nutcracker memories began over 45 years ago when the National Ballet of Washington D.C was mounting a new production.  I was a Party Child and the following year Clara.  I can remember much of it as if it were yesterday because of that child-like sense of wonder I had for everyone and everything.  The company was directed by the extraordinary Ballet Russe dancer, Frederic Franklin and he brought in the legendary Alexandra Danilova to work with the children.  He, with his charming English accent and she, with her Russian accent had both been famous stars in the ballet world and were now passing on their tradition to a group of ten year old children. There was such an aura in the studio, we were all spellbound.  Everything was important. Soon we began rehearsals with the professional dancers who had such a large influence on me at the time.  I can still remember most of their names. The dancers appeared so casual in their tattered practice clothes, yet the moment they performed a dance sequence they took on the most extraordinary elegance.  I remember so vividly how their skin glistened (I realized only later that their "sweat" was due to such hard physicality).  We went on tour (a one hour trip) to perform in Baltimore. At the theater rehearsals, I remember running all over the balcony to watch the dancers from every angle.

In that production, Clara sits at the feet of the Sugar Plum Fairy and her Cavalier through most of Act 2.  There I was sitting at the feet of my idols, the sublime Sonia Arova, Andrea Vodehnal, and Roni Mahler. They were all true ballerinas, they didn't just dance the Sugar Plum Fairy, they were the Sugar Plum Fairy.  As every ten year old girl falls in love with her prince, I fell in love with Ivan Nagy, an amazing Hungarian dancer.  The experience was magic and I began to understand the power of dance that continues to fuel my life every day. 

Years later I began my professional career at the Boston Ballet and, as chance would have it, my Ballet Master was James Capp, one of the friendliest of the National Ballet of Washington dancers when I was a child.  I always loved watching him dance the Chinese Divertissment.  Much to my delight, I would meet Ivan Nagy again in Paris.  This time I was the Artistic Director of the Sacramento Ballet coaching our beautiful couple, Nina Baratova and Charles Torres, who were competing at the Paris International Dance Competition in 1992.  I truly love the Nutcracker and all the lives it connects through generations.
We open tonight, don't miss this holiday delight.

Carinne Binda

"They accepted her as just one of the dancers."

I am writing this for my daughter Barbara Crow. I talked to Barb about her  "Nutcracker rememberings" :-) her words....

"Just being there and part of the ballet was so much fun. I was in the Nutcracker starting in 1995 for 8 seasons. In the beginning I loved being in costume and on the stage. After awhile I  also loved being back stage. I loved all the dancers and it was so exciting to be part of the show. I am so glad I was able to be in the Nutcracker with my sister Susan, and once my Dad and my brother Matt were in the ballet too, we joked with Mom that she had to be in the audience cause someone had to watch the show. I also liked doing the promotional events and the parades. I know I have Down Syndrome, and Ron let me be in the Nutcracker because I really wanted to be there and to show my community that everyone can dance.  Thank you Ron and Carinne for the wonderful memories."  

Love, 

Barbara Crow

As I type this out for Barb I am struck by what an important experience this was for Barbara and our Family. I was a back stage mom from the get-go because they were unsure how Barb would be back stage. It became apparent very quickly that I was not needed as a chaperon.  All the dancers, kids and professional, were so sweet and supportive with Barb. They accepted her as just one of the dancers. This was a chance for her to grow in ways that are immeasurable. This past summer she was a speaker at the National Down Syndrome conference. She spoke with confidence about her experiences in her community. Sacramento Ballet was one of her main topics. The other young adults were so interested in her stage experience and she was so proud to share her times on the stage. 

So thank you again, Ron. You truly made a wonderful difference in Barbara's life. 
Katherine Crow