Peanutcracker Ballet returns to Carson City Community Center Saturday

Sparking a child’s interest in ballet is no easy task, but it’s a challenge that Rosine Bena has met with uncomparable success over the last 20 years.

The artistic director at Sierra Nevada Ballet in Reno first wrote and choreographed a condensed version of “The Nutcracker” ballet in 1994, introducing it to audiences and families in the San Francisco Bay Area.

Bena later opened Sierra Nevada Ballet Company and Academy in Reno, where she brought along the success of her child-friendly “Nutcracker” ballet, hoping to capture similar interest in Northern Nevada.

Not only did the show catch on, but it has been running strong now for about 15 years with performances held each year in Carson City, too.

Demand for performances has grown, Bena said, as has interest in the art of ballet among the youth.

“It seems to be very popular,” she said. “Even the adults come back stage and say they like this better than the longer version.”

The shortened “Nutcracker” ballet is like taking snack-sized bites of the 19th Century Russian classic instead of sitting down to a full meal all at once, she said.

“It’s ‘Nutcracker’ in a capsule version,” Bena said

Bena’s widely successful “Nutcracker” production, entitled "Peanutcracker — The Story In a Nutshell,” returns to Nevada state capital this Saturday, Dec. 3 for two public performances held on stage in the Bob Boldrick Theater at the Carson City Community Center, 850 E. William Street.

Unlike the traditional two-hour long version originally written by Marius Petipa and Lev Ivanov, “Peanutcracker” is a 45-minute performance better suited for young families.

Bena understands that a child’s attention span typically lasts about as long, if not less, so she developed a script for the story that makes the performance easier to understand and to sit through.

“[It’s] designed for families with younger children to introduce them to the wonderful world of ballet,” said Sierra Nevada Ballet Artistic Director Rosine Bena, a 28-year veteran of the professional ballet stage and a former “Sugar Plum Fairy” who starred in the original “Nutcracker” stage production for 25 years. “This story is often a child’s first introduction to ballet.”

Besides making the story smaller and more bite-sized for pint-sized audience members, Bena also performs live narration during the show, a feature that helps younger audience members follow along with the story more easily than listening only to music.

She said these two changes to the original story format are much more child-friendly than the traditional two-hour ballet performance.

“Children would fall asleep after about 45 minutes or they couldn’t follow the story,” Bena recalled many parents telling her backstage after her “Nutcracker” performances. “I thought this would be an ideal way of introducing children to ballet.”

Tchaikovsky fans need not worry that the legendary composer’s musical score is compromised by changes in the script. It’s not.

In fact, Bena said Tchaikovsky remains as much a part of her production as in the original Russian ballet story.

Despite its shortened length, “Peanutcracker” is anything but a small production. A large troupe of professional dancers, apprentices and trainees from Sierra Nevada Ballet Company and Academy are paired with a cast of more than 80 schoolchildren representing six schools from around the area.

“Peanutcracker” returns to Carson City for about the 15th consecutive year, Bena said.

The show has grown so popular in the Nevada state capital, she said, that the production was moved from where it had started at the Brewery Arts Center’s Black Box Theatre to the Bob Boldrick Theatre inside the Carson City Community Center.

“The audience just got too big,” Bena said.

Returning to Carson City with the show is local native Kaitlin Vairo, who has performed with Sierra Nevada Ballet in its “Peanutcracker” production since she was a young child, Bena said.

“She studied ballet from childhood and showed an aptitude,” Bena said.

Vairo joined the Sierra Nevada Ballet’s trainee program as a young teenager, Bena said, working her way to apprentice and, more recently, into the company’s professional ballet ranks.

She has been part of Sierra Nevada Ballet now for more than nine years, Bena said.

“Peanutcracker” tells the story of Clara, the Nutcracker and the seven-headed Rat King in the Kingdom of Sweets.

Public performances are scheduled for 2-3 p.m. and 4-5 p.m. Saturday, Dec. 3 at the Carson City Community Center, 850 E. William Street.

There will also be two closed performances for area schools on Friday, Dec. 2 at the Community Center from 10-11 a.m. and noon to 1 p.m.

This is the Sierra Nevada Ballet’s second or third year providing closed performances to schools in Carson City, Bena said, with a healthy turn-out of several hundred students.

Admission to the show is $11 for adults, and $6 for children 10 and under.

For more information, visit Sierra Nevada Ballet online here, or like it on Facebook here.