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Friday, December 1, 2017 3 Brooklin Town Crier A Special BTC Feature Prepping for The Nutcracker By Richard Bercuson There are a number of givens in theatre productions. One is that no matter how often you've done a production, it's always different. Another is that if it involves children, those differences will never cease to surprise. Neither worries Prima Dance Academy's artistic director Catherine Kourkounakis who has spent a lifetime in the theatre. Now, with the academy's eighth annual production of the holiday staple The Nutcracker less than two weeks away, she's working at exacting from the child dancers just the right execution of movements. This is no simple task given that the range of ages in the show are ages five to adult. There are over 50 in this year's production comprising about 75% of the dance academy's registration. Not everyone wanted to be in the show, however, unlike past years, this one is made up entirely of Prima students. Began in the summer Planning for the show begun six months ago. In fact, Prima director Angie Stone says she's already begun looking at the 2018 production in addition to her current jobs handling marketing, advertising and being the show's stage manager. Kourkounakis, in her multi-faceted role, has had to manage the soup to nuts of a ballet: making the rehearsal schedule, directing the students, even adjusting recordings of the score to match the dancers' abilities. For that, she's spliced and tinkered with various Tchaikovsky versions to identify which parts of which ones will work best with young children versus the older, more experienced dancers. "There haven't been any major challenges," she says. "We do try to point out the importance of the commitment required for a production like this. In that way, the parents are really valuable." Extensive rehearsing Rehearsals have been on Fridays from 5:30-9 pm and Sundays 10 am to 5 pm. This is all in addition to the dancers' regular Prima class schedules. "The production really does charge them up," she adds. "We've set it so that every child who wanted to be in it got a role and then I matched the roles to their skills. Basically, it's our philosophy to make everyone's wish come true. While some dance schools offer competition, our choice is to offer training and be involved in continued on page 5