First City Dance Studio Previews ‘The Nutcracker’ for Bemidji Students

This weekend, First City Dance Studio will be presenting their 16th annual performance of “The Nutcracker” at Bemidji’s historic Chief Theater. But before making it to downtown, the studio first stopped by the outskirts of the city at Gene Dillon Elementary, where they gave a unique preview of their performance.

Tchaikovsky’s classic ballet from 1892 has been performed countless times during the holiday season. To preview their shows this weekend at the Chief Theater, First City Dance Studio put together a snippet of the full thing for Gene Dillon students.

“I give kudos to these dancers because we took our hour-and-a-half performance and made a little mini 30-minute performance and introduced many of these students to ‘Nutcracker’ for the first time,” said Cathy Marcotte, owner of First City Dance Studio.

The cast members all learn a variety of different dance styles for this performance.

“You saw ballet, there was a little bit of jazz, there was tap in there, and musical theater, which is super important for ‘Nutcracker’ – there’s a lot of acting [involved],” said First City Ballet Director Sonja DeSario.

Some of the cast included students currently enrolled at Gene Dillon Elementary, who were admittedly a little nervous to perform in front of their classmates.

“It was kind of scary because there’s my friends out there and my crushes and stuff,” says Izzy, who plays one of the Marzipan Shepherdesses.

“It was a little embarrassing because it was like my second year here and then I was like, ‘Why is there more fifth graders than fourth graders?'” added Avery, another one of the Marzipan Shepherdesses.

Since the performance was on the gym floor of Gene Dillon, there were concerns about how the performers would do dancing on such a slick surface. But those worries went away as soon as the show started.

“They were landing turns that we hadn’t seen them do in the studio, they’re landing tricks that we were concerned with the floor,” explained Marcotte. “They did amazing.”

The gym floor of Gene Dillon can now be called “the first stage” for some of the performers involved.

“For some people, it was their first time, so they actually got the experience to do it,” said Jordyn, a Marzipan Shepherdess.

The students put hours of practice into learning the full show and then added another few hours for this preview performance. Cast members believe that all of those hours have been well worth it to make this show the best it possibly can be.

“I think it went perfect,” said Izzy.

Avery agreed. “I think that it was just fun and that it was perfect, too.”

“I just liked it and it was also perfect,” added Jordyn.

“The Nutcracker” will be held in full at the Chief Theater in downtown Bemidji this weekend, with two shows happening Saturday, December 21st at 2 and 6 p.m. and another on Sunday, December 22nd at 2 p.m.