BY PHIL CUSTODIO
Clarkston News Editor
When the Moscow Ballet company brings their Great Russian Nutcracker dance production to the Fox Theater in Detroit next month, four Clarkston students will be there – with the performers on stage.
“I’ll probably be nervous,” said Jacqueline Suida, sixth grader at Sashabaw Middle School with six years dancing experience. “It’s cool to have kids dancing with the professionals.”
“It’s a show you can only see once a year – it puts you in the Christmas mood,” said Ashby Muzzy, fifth grader at Springfield Plains Elementary.
Suida, Muzzy, and SPE classmates Kaitlynn Suida, fifth grade, and Evelynn Suida, second grade, learn several kinds of dance, including hip hop, tap, jazz, lyrical, and ballet, at Orion Oxford Dance Arts in Orion Township. They will use many of those skills performing with the professional dancers from Russia and Europe at the 8 p.m. Nutcracker show on Dec. 23.
They auditioned for it on Oct. 27.
“There was a competition for it,” said Muzzy, who has danced for three years and performed in the show last year. “It’s cool to see multiple kinds of dance by different people.”
Jacqueline and Kaitlynn will dance in the Christmas Party in Act One.
“I like expressing your feelings through your feet while you’re dancing,” Jacqueline said.
“It’s really enjoyable because you can try different types of dancing,” Kaitlynn said.
“I thought it would be fun, learning lots of different kinds of dancing,” said Evelynn, who will be up front during the Chinese variation dance in Act Two.
Muzzy will be in costume as a mouse, battling the Nutcracker with the Mouse King.
“I like to try many things and learn a lot about them,” she said.
Moscow Ballet’s 2018 tour includes more than 150 cities across the United States and Canada. Their Dance with Us program includes auditioning, rehearsing, and performing with the professional, international touring ballet company in the Nutcracker show. For more information, check www.nutcracker.com.