Superior-area students in Minnesota Ballet’s ‘Nutcracker’

When the Minnesota Ballet’s production of “The Nutcracker” recreates Manhattan in the early 1900s, the cast includes ten Superior-area students training at the School of the Minnesota Ballet.

Performances are 7 p.m. today and Saturday and 3 p.m. Sunday at the Duluth Entertainment Convention Center Symphony Hall, with the University of Minnesota Duluth Festival Orchestra playing the Tchaikovsky score live and the Lake Superior Youth Chorus providing vocal accompaniment.

Conceived and choreographed by Allen Fields, the ballet’s artistic director emeritus, the production features the party scene in an opulent townhouse overlooking Central Park; the snow scene in the glittery park itself, led by the Ice Fairy; and a journey to exotic lands of Asian, Spanish, and Russian dancers, led by the Sugar Plum Fairy.

From Superior High School, ninth-grader Emilia Bustos appears on Saturday as a geisha dancer, Marshall School ninth-grader Katherine Kropid appears Friday and Sunday as the caroler leader and Spanish dancer; Marshall School fifth-grader Molly Schottenbauer appears all performances as a mouse warrior and on Saturday as a Mother Ginger child.

From Great Lakes Elementary School, third-grader Natalie Sandor appears Saturday in the street scene. From Cooper Elementary School, second-graders Isabella Blohm and Chloe Tafelski appear on Saturday in the street scene.

From Cathedral School, sixth-grader Julia Heytens appears on Friday and Sunday as Clara, and sixth-grader Shannon McCoshen appears in all performances as a Mother Ginger child and Friday and Sunday as a soldier.

From Northwestern High School in Poplar, senior Laura Bourrie appears Friday and Sunday as a geisha dancer; and from Northwestern Elementary School, fourth-grader Erin Clark appears Saturday as a Mother Ginger child.

Visit www.minnesotaballet.org

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