<< Previous   of   Next >> File photo  (click to enlarge) Members of the Olympic Ballet rehearse at the Anderson Cultural Center for their 2008 production of “The Nutcracker.” The dance troupe returns to the stage of the Edmonds Center for the Arts for three performances this weekend.

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‘The Nutcracker'

• Olympic Ballet Theatre: The first of 10 performances take place at 2 and 7 p.m. Saturday, Dec. 5, 3 p.m. Sunday, Dec. 6, at the Edmonds Center for the Arts, 410 4th Ave. N, Edmonds. Other performances take place Dec. 13 at the Byrnes Performing Arts Center in Arlington, and Dec. 19 and 20 at the Everett Performing Arts Center. Tickets are $30 adults, $25 students & seniors, and $20 children 10 & under, available by calling 425-774-7570, online at www.olympicballet.com, or Ticketmaster at 206-292-ARTS or Ticketmaster.com. • Emerald Ballet Theatre: Performances take place at 2 & 7 p.m. Saturday, Dec. 5, 2 p.m. Sunday, Dec. 6, 2 p.m. Saturday, Dec. 12 and 2 p.m. Sunday, Dec. 13 at the Northshore Performing Arts Center, 18125 92nd Ave. NE, Bothell. Tickets are $30 adults, $27 NPACF members, $25 seniors (62 & up), $15 youth (under age 17 — no babes-in-arms), available online at www.npacf.org or by calling 425-408-7988 noon to 4 p.m. Monday-Friday. • Alderwood Dance Spectrum: Performances take place 9:45 a.m. and 12:15 p.m. Thursday, Dec. 10, 7 p.m. Friday, Dec. 11 and 2 p.m. and 7 p.m. Saturday, Dec. 12, at the Snohomish County P.U.D. Auditorium, 2320 California St., in Everett. Tickets are $15, with a special school rate of $5 per ticket for the Thursday performances, available at Dance Spectrum's studio, 19231 33rd Ave. W, Lynnwood. More information is available by calling 425-771-2994.

CONTACT THE ENTERPRISE Jocelyn Robinson, News editor jrobinson@heraldnet.com

‘Nutcracker' times three

Local dance troupes present their own productions of Tchaikovsky's holiday ballet

By Andrea Miller
Enterprise features editor

Good things come in threes, and during this year's holiday performing arts season, three is the magic number when it comes to the opportunity to see locally produced versions of the “Nutcracker” ballet.

Olympic Ballet Theatre: Edmonds' own ballet company presents its 29th annual production of Tchaikovsky's holiday ballet, on three local stages for a total of 10 performances. OBT can bee seen Dec. 5 and 6 at the Edmonds Center for the Arts, Dec. 13 at the Byrnes Performing Arts Center in Arlington and Dec. 19 and 20 at the Everett Performing Arts Center.

This year's OBT production features guest artists Sayaka Ohtaki from Japan and Kuei-Hsien Chu from Taiwan, who are currently in the United States preparing for the 2010 International Ballet Competition.

Olympic Ballet's colorful production is notable for the Christmas Tree that grows before the audience's eyes and the Booming Cannon, as well as the original choreography by OBT founders Helen Wilkins and the late John Wilkins. Students from the company's ballet school perform in many of the supporting roles.

Emerald Ballet Theatre: The Northshore Performing Arts Center in Bothell hosts what is becoming an annual holiday tradition with the Emerald Ballet Theatre's production of “The Nutcracker,” featuring live orchestral accompaniment by the Rainier Symphony Ballet Orchestra, conducted by David Waltman.

This year's EBT production continues over two weekends, with a total of five performances, Dec. 5, Dec. 6, Dec. 12 and Dec. 13. EBT artistic director Viktoria Titova, a former ballerina with the Bolshoi Theatre Grigorivich Company, reprises the role of the Sugar Plum Fairy. She is joined by Oleg Gorbolouv, former Pacific Northwest Ballet soloist, as Cavalier, along with other ballet professionals. Students from EBT's own ballet school also round out the cast.

Alderwood Dance Spectrum: The Lynnwood dance school's annual production of “A Child's Storybook: The Nutcracker” takes place Thursday, Dec. 10, Friday, Dec. 11 and Saturday, Dec. 12 at the Snohomish County P.U.D. Auditorium in Everett.

Under the direction of Jennifer Greene, Dance Spectrum's version is unique in that it is a narrated version of the ballet. The story of Clara's dreamlike journey with her Nutcracker Prince to the land of Sugarplum Fairies is told by a narrator who sits at the edge of the stage as if he were reading the story from a big book. Alderwood Dance Spectrum has been proving dance instruction to local children and teens for 28 years.