The ballet club turned the Williams Center for the Arts into a small town in Germany with dancing mice and toy soldiers in its first-ever showcase on Nov. 20. The club was officially recognized as a student organization last semester.
The show ran approximately 80 minutes with a 10-minute intermission and showcased excerpts from the classic tale of “The Nutcracker.” Traditional leading roles were filled by Rebecca Capone ‘27 as Clara and Leonardo Ontiveros ‘26 as the Mouse King. Other major parts included Anna Fitzpatrick ‘26 as Drosselmeyer and Ciara Troy ‘26 as the lead flower.
According to Troy, the club’s treasurer, the group found “The Nutcracker” to be a fun choice for its debut performance.
“We all decided that ‘The Nutcracker’ is a pretty classic ballet for Christmas time and can be pretty easily adapted for people with a lot of less experience or more experience,” Troy said. “We thought it was pretty nostalgic for a lot of people so we thought more people would want to see the performance.”
The club has varying levels of dance experience.
“This was the ballet club’s first performance so I’m honestly just glad we were able to create a positive atmosphere for dancers of all different levels to come together and put on this show,” Troy said. “I’m really happy we were able to have the opportunity.”
Troy feels that the ballet club is an exciting opportunity for experienced dancers like herself to continue dancing while at Lafayette and experiment with teaching.
“I grew up doing ballet and performing a lot, but I’ve never really done teaching before,” Troy said. “I think it’s been a really great experience to be able to continue teaching and doing ballet at Lafayette.”
The club’s executive board was able to instill confidence in its newer dancers despite being mostly new at teaching themselves.
“We didn’t really want to make it too competitive or anything,” Yuko Tanaka ’26, the club’s president, said. “So it was mostly, like, if you wanted to be in it you will be placed in a dance … [that] you were comfortable doing.”
According to Tanaka, all members were dedicated to making the performance a success.
“I really appreciate our members for being really dedicated and the rest of the board for really being passionate about this and doing their best to put on the show,” Tanaka said.
Troy is also excited to continue this positive and community-based performance environment moving forward and hopes that the club makes performing “The Nutcracker” an annual tradition.
“I’ve heard that a lot of the new members of the ballet club really enjoyed doing it,” Troy said. “So I would definitely like to do it again next year.”
Kristen Vincent ’26 contributed reporting.
