Nina Dunleavy of Wilkes-Barre, left, will dance the role of Klara Stahlbaum and her friend Lizzy Papciak of Mountain Top will dance the role of the Snow Queen when The Degnan Ballet Center at the Wilkes University Conservatory presents ‘The Nutcracker’ Dec. 16-17.
Photo courtesy Wilkes University
Two shows set for this weekend at Wilkes University
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Real-life siblings Ella Dunleavy, 12, and Nina Dunleavy, 15, will portray Fritz and Klara Stahlbaum onstage when ‘The Nutcracker’ comes to Wilkes University. If you’re familiar with the story, you know Fritz is jealous of Klara’s Nutcracker, and that will cause some problems.
Photo courtesy Wilkes University
“The snow starts to fall,” Lizzy Papciak said, “and it feels like Christmas.”
The young dancer from Mountain Top will portray the Snow Queen in “The Nutcracker,” presented by The Degnan Ballet Center at the Wilkes University Conservatory this weekend at the Dorothy Dickson Darte Center, and she was referring to a moment in the first act when snowflakes flutter down to the stage.
For some people in the audience, that can be a magical moment, worthy of a collective sigh, and promising further delights in act 2 — when flowers and fairies will twirl about the stage, and representatives of various countries will show off their different styles of dance.
Of course, to make all that magic happen, a lot of hard work has to take place onstage and behind stage. During a recent visit to a Saturday rehearsal, we heard about some of the challenges.
“Sometimes a snap pops off (a costume) during a performance,” said ballet mom Annie Papciak, who is Lizzy’s mother, and who, aided by her friend Lynette McIngvale, was recently steaming “around 200 costumes” to make them stage-ready.
Oh, and if the occasional snap pops off? Don’t worry, Papciak and McIngvale will be waiting in the wings to sew it back on. “Or sometimes we sew the dancer right into the costume.”
After several years in charge of tutus, Papciak said with a laugh, “I know them all (the dancers) by name and some I know by dress size.”
One dancer she knows very well is Nina Dunleavy from Wilkes-Barre, who has the role of Klara Stahlbaum — the girl who receives a Nutcracker doll as a gift during a fancy, Old World party at her home.
Quite the trouper, Nina brings juice drinks to rehearsals to have them on hand in case her blood sugar dips. She has Type I diabetes, she said, and it’s evident the condition has forced her to grow up fast.
Still, she said, she enjoys rehearsals, enjoys the hard work of ballet and even appreciates feeling nervous. “I feel like nerves help a lot,” she said. “If you’re not nervous you don’t try as hard.”
For Nina, 15, the performance will be a family affair. Her real-life sister Ella, who is 12, will portray Klara’s mischief-making brother, Fritz. Their father, Jim, will portray Dr. Stahlbaum, the host in the party scene. And the hostess will be … actually, it won’t be mom Danielle Dunleavy.
“She wants to be in the audience,” Nina said of her real-life mother. “She said she’d miss being able to watch us if she was in the show, too.”
But yet another on-stage relationship is rooted in real life.
Guest artists Paige Washko and Isaiah Brissette-Hatch, who will dance the roles of the Sugar Plum Fairy and her Cavalier, met at the Nutmeg Ballet Conservatory in Torrington, Conn., and are dating.
“We already have a connection,” said Isaiah, who has been a fan of “The Nutcracker” since the first time he saw it, as a child whose parents took him and his identical twin brother to a performance near their home in Maine.
“I said, ‘Oh, I want to do that,’ ” he recalled.
He and his brother Samuel are both certified nursing assistants now, and both have studied dance extensively, including at “Nutmeg,” where several Degnan Ballet School students also have studied over the years.
Lizzy Papciak, for one, has taken part in Nutmeg’s summer intensive program, and after she finishes her sophomore year at Holy Redeemer High School in 2024, she expects to study ballet full-time in Connecticut, and take academic courses online.
While this year’s show might be the last local “Nutcracker” for the Snow Queen, she said she’s ready for the commitment to the pre-professional ballet program. “It’s so much a part of my life.”
Meanwhile, for now she’s enjoying the local production, which gives her a chance to be partnered by guest artist TJ Firneno, who potrays Drosselmeyer, the mysterious giver of gifts at the Stahlbaum party.
This “Nutcracker” is part of an anniversary year for the Degnan Ballet Center, which is “celebrating 40 years of excellence.” Curtain time is 7:30 p.m. Saturday, Dec. 16 and 2 p.m. Sunday, Dec. 17, at Wilkes University’s Dorothy Dickson Darte Center. Admission is $20 for all reserved seats. For more info or to reserve tickets, call 570-408-4426 or email conservancy@wilkes.edu/.