The Jean Wolfmeyer School of Dance will perform its annual Nutcracker Ballet for the 47th year this weekend.
The performance takes place at the Capitol Civic Centre on Friday, December 15th, Saturday, December 16th, and Sunday, December 17th.
The Jean Wolfmeyer Nutcracker has been a holiday tradition for Manitowoc all these years, but it wasn’t always performed at the Capitol; it started smaller at the Lincoln High School Auditorium.
But as it grew, the ballet needed to be held somewhere bigger.
But even before the first performance at Lincoln High School, it started even smaller; only the snow scene from the ballet was performed in the Jean Wolfmeyer annual recital, and the idea arose from some handmade headpieces.
“She handmade the beautiful headpieces for it that we still use today. She spent so much time and effort working on those headpieces that she decided to reuse them and create the entire ballet. That was 47 years ago,” says the current Jean Wolfmeyer studio owner, Crystal Lavallee.
The amount of time and effort Lavallee has put into the Nutcracker and the studio as a whole is truly special.
She says, “I began helping Jean with the Nutcracker in 2007, and this is my third Nutcracker as the owner. So, this is my 16th year involved with the performance.”
Lavallee seems to have a very special connection to not only the ballet but also the dancers who make the show what it is.
She tells Seehafer News her favorite part of The Nutcracker from a teacher’s perspective is “watching the dancers grow up and pass through all the parts as they get older. They start off as bonbons and look up to the flowers, who are the oldest girls, and one day, they get to become the girls they once looked up to. It’s so rewarding watching them make such progress and memories, year after year.”
Visit the Capitol Civic Centre Website to purchase tickets for this weekend.
