The Ice Chalet put on its annual The Nutcracker performances earlier this month, and three Bearden students participated.
Senior Alisa Apostoaei, senior Hannah Benson, and junior Lexi Roth all helped make the show a success. This is a huge production that is put on every year by the Ice Chalet’s skating school.
“No matter what level you are, there is a place for you, and you will get to perform,” Apostoaei said.
The purpose of this performance is to allow students to get on the ice in front of an audience without the pressure of judges. This also gives parents and family a chance to see their loved ones skate at a high level without the added pressures of competition.
“Definitely when you’re a senior, you get the special solo roles, so I think yeah, this year it was definitely a goal to get one of these bigger roles and I did, and so that was exciting,” Benson said.
The Ice Chalet’s coaches get together a few months in advance of the show and decide which students would be best for which roles based on their skill level. Apostoaei was cast as a snowflake and a flower with a solo, Benson was cast as a flower and the rat queen, and Roth received the roles of flower and sugar plum fairy.
All the students participated in weekly hour-long practices to put group numbers together.
“We began practicing in October,” Roth said. “I had practice twice a week – once for each role I had – and then it was more as we got closer to performance time.”
As this was their senior performance, Apostoaei and Benson were pleased with the roles they played and happy they have been able to participate in this fun, family friendly event that has made such a big impact on their time skating.
This was Roth’s 11th year in the performance, and she has built plenty of meaningful friendships in that time.
“It was the most different [year] because I had friends graduating and [I] had never had to go through that before,” Roth said.