Almost 126 years ago on December 18, 1892, an audience in St. Petersburg, Russia, became the first to be enchanted by “The Nutcracker” ballet. A glittering holiday party is transformed into a dreamy, wintry wonderland for a little girl. Repeating that holiday tradition is an annual experience for millions of families across the world. Sets, dance, and costuming are visual representations of the stirring, lyrical music of Pyotr Illyich Tchaikovsky. It will linger after you leave the auditorium.
Woodlawn Arts Academy’s 2018 production of “The Nutcracker,” presented by Savant Capital Management, will be performed the weekend before Thanksgiving, to kick off the holiday season. The production will take place at Centennial Auditorium, in Sterling High School, on Saturday, November 17, 2018, at 6:30 p.m. and a Sunday, November 18, matinee at 2:00 p.m.
Tickets are $10 each and are on sale online at centennialauditorium.org. The box office is open from 3:00 to 6:00 p.m. through Friday. Contact the box office at 815-622-3248.
The classic ballet features dancers ages 6-to-adult from Sterling, Rock Falls, Dixon, Morrison, and Milledgeville, IL, who take dance classes at Woodlawn Dance Academy and other Sauk Valley area studios. Dancers began rehearsing during Woodlawn’s “Nutcracker” Ballet Camp this summer. Rehearsals continued into the fall under the direction of Woodlawn Dance Academy instructors Christy Zepezauer, Becky Rich, Hillary Blevins, and Erika Matheney.
Woodlawn Arts Academy is an agency of United Way of Whiteside and Lee Counties, and programs are partially funded by a grant from the Illinois Arts Council Agency.
