LUTHERAN QUILTERS – Members of the Quilts for Comfort Group stand between pews draped with some of the 205 quilts they made, in the Sitka Lutheran Church Tuesday. The group made the quilts for five local non-profits and one in Anchorage. The remaining quilts are sent to Lutheran World Relief which  distributes them to places around the world in need, such as Ukraine, as part of Personal Care Kits. Pictured are, from left, Helen Cunningham, Kathleen Brandt,Vicki Swanson, Paulla Hardy, Kim Hunter, Linda Swanson and Sue Fleming.  (Sentinel Photo by James Poulson)

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Daily Sitka Sentinel

Nutcracker With Sitka Spin Ready for Stage

By SHANNON HAUGLAND
Sentinel Staff Writer
    Macee Steinson remembers her thoughts while watching productions of the “The Nutcracker” in Sitka when she was a young ballerina.
    “Honestly, ever since I went to the shows when I was little, I would love watching all the Maries,” she said of one of the main characters in the show. “I thought, yeah, I want to be Marie.”
    And after 11 years of ballet and dance classes in other styles, Macee, now 15, is Marie in this weekend’s production – and the reality is so far living up to her expectations.
    “It’s such a big part,” she said in an interview this week. “Being Marie, there’s a lot of little dances I have to remember, not one big dance. It’s 30 seconds here, wait, and 30 seconds there. There’s a lot to remember.”
    Macee is one of 65 dancers who will take the stage Friday for a weekend of performances of “Sitka Nutcracker – Land of Sweets.” The famous Tchaikovsky ballet is presented by Fireweed Dance Guild and directed by Melinda McAdams, director of the Sitka Studio of Dance.
    Shows are 7 p.m. Friday, 2 and 7 p.m. Saturday and 3 p.m. Sunday at the Sitka Performing Arts Center.
    McAdams said the dance guild has presented the Land of Sweets in the past, and it has been popular with performers, as Marie is guided through scenes featuring coffee, toffee, tea, candy canes and chocolate, to name a few of the confections she encounters.
    McAdams also has added a few other scenes to the mix, with a “taffy” scene featuring the Sitka Cirque performers on silks, and a “cherry cordial and toffee” scene to give performers more opportunities to dance. The New Archangel Dancers this year will perform a gliding dance to guide Marie to the land of snow near the end of Act I.

Dancers, from left, Alli Christner, Allison Winger, Delaney Jayne McAdams, Grace Gjertsen, Zia Allen, Tayler Clifton, Fiona Ferguson, Autumn Dinsmore and Audrey Saiz take the stage in full costume at the Performing Arts Center Tuesday. The dancers will present a Sitka-themed version of the ballet “The Nutcracker.” The show opens 7 p.m. Friday, with other performances at 2 and 7 p.m. Saturday and 3 p.m. Sunday at the PAC.  (Sentinel Photo)

    In other variations, the show includes a student-age Drosselmeyer (Tayler Clifton), a Duke Ellington composition for the Battle Scene, a coffee house beatnik piece for “coffee” and a female Nutcracker – Laura Turcott. Sitkans will also see a spectacular Mother Ginger costume by Carol Hughey make its debut.
    But there also is traditional Nutcracker fare to look forward to, with a number of ballet scenes. Grace Gjertsen plays the Sugar Plum Fairy, one of the most famous roles.
    “There are still a lot of tutus,” McAdams said.
    The Nutcracker is presented every other year in Sitka, and regularly plays to sold-out all-ages audiences during the holiday season. It’s a lot of work in the two years leading up to this weekend, and this week McAdams is busy fine-tuning the details in technical rehearsals – but she’s also thinking about what she will do two years from now.
    “My job is basically done right now,” she said. “Now I’m thinking, how are we going to do it next time to make it new and exciting.”
    McAdams worked with fellow choreographers (Kelly Eckstein, Gina Newkirk, Nancy Neel, Laura Turcott, Erin Vastola, Katy Pendell and Frances Donohoe) on casting earlier this year, with some of the performers requesting specific parts.
    Delaney McAdams, 16, said she knew she wanted to be the Snow Queen, after seeing performances by such predecessors as Sienna Reid and Camryn Grant. The daughter of director McAdams, Delaney has been dancing since she was four.
    “I want to go out with a bang, you know?” she said. She said a major challenge in playing the Snow Queen is the fact that the snow scene is long, and she’s performing en pointe. While she loves the scene, she also listed the “party scene” that opens the show as a favorite. “There’s a lot of acting happening, and when you perform it, you get to move around a lot.”
    Tayler Clifton, 16, picked Drosselmeyer, the children’s mysterious godfather, as the role she wanted, inspired by the last Drosselmeyer she saw, Erin Vastola.
    “I thought it looked like a lot of fun and decided that’s what I was going to audition for,” she said. “That was my first choice.”
    Tayler said she loves the pivotal role Drosselmeyer plays in bringing the party to life at the beginning of the story, and adding magic to transform the stage into the Land of Sweets.
    “She’s the reason the story is happening,” Tayler said.
    Rehearsals started in the fall, ramping up to the intense final preparations this week. PAC Technical Director Elle Campbell, from the Fine Arts Camp, worked with adults and teens to coordinate one of the tougher off-stage jobs – putting up the set that resembles a stately home for the first scene of the ballet. Costume designers and seamstresses are also busy making repairs and keeping the costumes stage ready. Parents of dancers contribute volunteer hours to props, costumes, babysitting, hairstyling and numerous other jobs needed to make the show a first-class production.
    “It’s such a big group effort,” Tayler said. “It takes so many people from the community to make it happen.”
    Cast members for the past few weeks have performed dances at various events, with a short performance scheduled for 10 a.m. the day the show opens. But Tayler and others said earlier this week they were looking forward to seeing the story come together, after months of working on individual scenes.
    Delaney said she loves that the Nutcracker here varies from year to year, with alterations made from one show to the next. Two years ago, the guild staged “An Alaskan Tale,” and this year’s Land of Sweets includes variations of the traditional version, and dance styles other than ballet.
    The show includes an intermission, with a refreshment table as a fundraiser.
    Tickets are $20 for general admissions, $10 for students and seniors, and free for those five and under, available at Old Harbor Books and the door. McAdams said parents shouldn’t hesitate to bring young children to the production.
    She noted that ballet is more interactive than a lot of other artforms, with audience members clapping and cheering when they see something they like during the show, and kids are generally well-entertained. “The music is fantastic, there’s a lot of color – it’s an active production,” McAdams said.






   

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20 YEARS AGO

March 2004

Advertisement: Tea-Licious Tea House & Bakery 315 Lincoln Street Grand Opening! Freshly Baked Scones, Cakes & Pastries Innovative Salads, Soups & Sandwiches Harney & Sons Tea. Lunch * Afternoon Tea * Supper.

50 YEARS AGO

March 1974

Photo caption: National Republican Chairman George Bush takes a drink of water offered by Jan Craddick, Sitka delegate, during the Republican convention held here. Mrs. Craddick explained to Bush that the water was from Indian River, which means, according to local legend, that he will return.

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