Volusia Civic Ballet offers 'new and fresh' spin on 'The Nutcracker' at Daytona's Peabody

DAYTONA BEACH — When student dancer Stillman Mahoney looks around at rehearsals for Volusia Civic Ballet’s production of “The Nutcracker,” it’s obvious that demographics are changing for the annual holiday performances that return this weekend at Peabody Auditorium.

There are more male dancers in this year’s 90-member cast than ever before, according to the show’s director and performers.

That’s a welcome evolution for young performers such as Mahoney, 17, a senior at Spruce Creek High School in Port Orange who is cast as the Nutcracker Prince in this year’s production.

It’s his fifth year of involvement with Civic Ballet’s “Nutcracker,” experience that he hopes will provide the foundation for a professional dance career.

“It’s really nice,” he said of the trend. “Seeing the guys doing the ballet, understanding the choreography. It’s amazing to see it all happen.”

The 90-member cast of student dancers is in the home stretch of rehearsals for the 27th annual edition of the famed two-act holiday favorite ballet to be presented on Saturday and Sunday at Peabody.

A holiday staple powered by one of Russian composer Pyotr Ilyich Tchaikovsky’s most famous scores and loosely based on a fanciful E.T.A. Hoffmann story, “The Nutcracker” revolves around a girl who befriends a nutcracker that comes to life on Christmas Eve and wages a battle against an evil Mouse King.

Marathon rehearsals required for 'magical' performance

Students featured in the production represent nearly two dozen dance studios throughout Central Florida. Together, they have been practicing eight hours a day on Sunday afternoons — every Sunday afternoon — since September in preparation for the production under the supervision of Jerome DeVito, the show’s artistic director.

To perfect the performance, the armada of student dancers fill three rehearsal rooms at South Beach Dance, the Daytona Beach dance studio that DeVito has owned for more than 30 years. The marathon sessions generally last about eight hours, he said.

“The production’s party scene alone has all the cast members in it, and it’s 45 minutes long,” DeVito said. “You’re dealing with very young kids to adults, so just to get that monster done is a lot.

“This is a huge undertaking and it’s nothing short of magical when it gets done. When I sit there and watch it (the performances), I always say, ‘I don’t know how we got that done.’”

DeVito praises the Volusia Civic Ballet’s board of directors for offering the freedom to add creative twists to the traditional storyline to keep the production interesting to both performers and audience.

“We like to change it every year, because it’s all about making it new and fresh,” DeVito said. This year, the focus has been on transforming the battle between the Prince and the Mouse King into “something epic,” he said.

With a dozen male dancers in this year’s cast, it’s the first time that female dancers won’t be required to fill out the ranks of soldiers, traditionally a male role, DeVito said.

“The boys are killing it this year in ‘Nutcracker,’” he said. “We have a lot of them.”

'Dancing with the Stars' fuels aspirations of young dancers

DeVito attributes that increase to the influence of TV shows such as “So You Think You Can Dance?” and “Dancing with the Stars.”

“They see professional football players and basketball players actually excelling in dance,” he said. “In those shows, the men are equal to the women.”

Many of the student performers, who range from third graders to high school seniors, started taking dance lessons before elementary school. DeVito has watched many of them evolve from beginners to skilled dancers tapped for major roles in the production.

For instance, Joy Perry, 16, cast as Dew Drop, started dancing at the tender age of 2 years old. Now, a homeschooler dual enrolled at Daytona State College, she aspires to earn a dance-related college degree that could open the door to a professional performing career.

As Dew Drop, the biggest challenge is mastering “how quick the movements are,” she said, in a part “that’s very sassy, very playful. It’s a challenge.”

Other student dancers in key roles include Adelyn Childers, 14, a homeschooler from Port Orange, as Claire; Jessica Motzer, 17, of DeLand High School, as the Snow Queen; Juliane Carpio, 15, of Spruce Creek High School, as both Nanny and the Mouse Queen; Amelia Palmer, 13, of Lourdes Academy in Daytona Beach; as North Star; and Kelan Halloran, 16, also of Spruce Creek High School, as the Mouse King and the Butler.

Professional performers offer example to aspiring dancers

For the third consecutive year, the student cast will be augmented by the presence of two professional dancers that offer a window into the mindset required to pursue that career.

This year’s guest artists are familiar faces in Central Florida and beyond.

Arcadian Broad and his wife, Taylor Sambola, were perhaps the most recognizable performers with the Orlando Ballet until they parted ways with that company in 2019. A Titusville native, Broad had created well-received shows for the ballet in recent years, including productions of “Beauty and the Beast” and a adaptation of “Alice in Wonderland.”

Nationally, he also has been in the spotlight, thanks to childhood appearances on “America’s Got Talent” and Ellen DeGeneres’ talk show, as well as a series of YouTube videos.

More: Where to find holiday parades and events in Volusia, Flagler

Broad and Sambola’s progressive approach to dance mirrors the interests of many young students of the art form, DeVito said.

“They are very contemporary, like our show is,” he said. “They come from a background that represents a lot of our dancers. That is, they are not just ballet dancers. Their minds are open to other genres.”

It’s increasingly common for hip-hop dancers to enroll in ballet classes or vice versa, DeVito said.

“There’s a lot of fusion of the genres.”

That mindset also contributes to the progressive approach and diversity of the Civic’s “Nutcracker,” a trend that DeVito hopes will spark the interest of more young dancers.

“Any little girl in the audience can see themselves represented in the show,” he said. “And now, any little boy can see themselves represented In the show, too.”

If you go

What: Volusia Civic Ballet production of "The Nutcracker"

When: 2 p.m. Saturday (condensed "Family Series" performance); with full productions at 7 p.m. Saturday and 2 p.m. Sunday. Also, Children's Sugar Plum Tea event one hour ahead of each performance.

Where: Peabody Auditorium, 600 Auditorium Blvd., Daytona Beach

Cost: Tickets range from $25-$45, plus fees. Children's Sugar Plum Tea tickets sold as $25 per child add-on.

Call: 386-671-3472

Online: peabodyauditorium.org

This article originally appeared on The Daytona Beach News-Journal: 'The Nutcracker' gets 'new and fresh' spin from Volusia Civic Ballet