Plympton sisters Emma and Sofia Christensen will dance at the South Shore Ballet Company’s performance of the Nutcracker. Emma, 10, will dance the lead as Clara.
South Shore residents craving a Nutcracker fix this season need go no further than Braintree where more than 85 local dancers will bring to life the story of Clara, a young girl swept up in a battle with a mouse king and then transported to the magical Land of the Sweets.
Set to Tchaikovsky’s beloved score, the ballet includes performances by the Sugar Plum Fairy, featuring guest artist Sayaka Wakita (Royal Ballet of Flanders), to the mysterious Drosselmeyer, featuring SSBT faculty Harunaga Yamakawa, as well as a dazzling array of dancing palace fairies, chocolates and marzipan.
The Nutcracker will run December 17 and 18 with two performances on Saturday, at 1 p.m. and 6 p.m., and one performance on Sunday at 1 p.m. at Thayer Academy, 745 Washington St., Braintree. Tickets are on sale at www.tututix.com, and are expected to sell out.
Emma is in the fifth grade at the Dennett Elementary School. This is her 4th year participating in the South Shore Ballet’s production of the Nutcracker. She began dancing at 3, but more intensely at the age of 7. Her sister Sofia is 7 years old and is in the second grade at the Dennett Elementary School. She has been dancing since she was 3 years old. This is her second year performing in the Nutcracker. She will be an angel.
Hanover’s South Shore Ballet Theatre (SSBT), was founded in 2008 by Marthavan McKeon, a twenty seven-year veteran ballet instructor (including ten years with the Boston Ballet School) and former soloist with the Atlanta Ballet. McKeon heads a faculty that includes former Boston Ballet soloists and faculty Leslie Woodies and Stephanie Moy, and former American Ballet Theatre dancer Nan Keating, who was principal of Boston Ballet School’s (now-defunct) Norwell studio and before that of the Children’s Ballet Workshop, precursor to the Boston Ballet School.
SSBT’s 5700 plus square feet of studio space is equipped with professionally-sprung floors, custom mirrors and barres and pianos for live accompaniment. SSBT offers pre-professional training as well as recreational ballet for students from ages three to adult.
SSBT graduates have pursued advanced training at American Ballet Theatre, Ellison Ballet, Alvin Ailey/Fordham University, Houston Ballet Academy, Gelsey Kirkland Academy of Classical Ballet, Ballet West, Bolshoi Ballet (CT and NYC), Next Generation, Washington Ballet, Miami Ballet, and Carolina Ballet.