Inclusive ‘Nutcracker’ is full of magic

The world of dance is a seriously competitive arena. The very best climb to the top while many more dreamers and strivers get left behind.

Not at Vancouver Dance Theater, which celebrates its 40th anniversary this year. Its annual offering of “The Nutcracker” is open, inclusive — and unique as each and every kid in it.

“A lot of the local schools and studios have their own ‘Nutcracker’ and you have to be a student or member to participate,” said artistic director Christina Wilder. “We’re totally different. We’re a community nonprofit organization. We try to make everyone feel special.”

Anybody between the ages of 5 and 18 who’s had one year of dance instruction qualifies. That can mean a graduating high school senior who’s on fire to pursue dance as a profession — and plenty of those have passed through VDT on their ways to destinations like the Joffrey Ballet, Wilder said.

But it also means all levels of amateurs who simply love to dance. “Everybody gets a part,” Wilder said. “We design the choreography to suit the kids. If we have very advanced students, we find parts for them. If we have children with special needs, we make sure they feel part of the program, too.”

Wilder has been part of the program for nearly as long as it’s been around. The Vancouver native was born the same year as Vancouver Dance Theater, and she remembers going to see its productions of “The Nutcracker” as early as age 5, she said. She started to dance in VDT productions when she was a teen. Three years ago, after a long career dancing and teaching, she was hired as VDT’s artistic director.

“It’s the whole area coming together,” she said. “It’s really fun community building. The kids all make new friends and have a joyful time when they’re here.”

Forty years of joyful young dancers adds up to a whole lot of local history and connections, parent and board member Ursela Trantham said, which VDT loves recalling in the lobby outside each performance: “We set up large boards that we call our history boards. Every year all the way back to 1976 there are pictures of shows in Vancouver.” Current dancers have a great time spotting their strangely youthful-looking teachers and even parents, dancing with VDT a generation ago; with luck, those parents will recognize themselves and their friends of yesteryear. It’s a great pointe-toed walk down memory lane.

“I love what VDT does and what opportunities it offers,” Trantham said. “While we have some great ‘Nutcrackers’ in Vancouver, this is the first and the only one you do not need to be part of a big studio” to join in. “The skill level is still amazing,” she said — and so is the inclusiveness.

Oh boy, what you’re missing

Veteran dancers Tyler and Joey Stanley, 13-year-old twins, will take turns with the Nutcracker role this year. Tyler told The Columbian that his love of ballet started as a reaction against wintertime weather.

“It was raining all the time,” and dance lessons proved totally fun when he began at age 3, he said. Teasing by other boys is almost nonexistent, he said, and when it does happen his standard retort is, “You don’t know what you’re missing.”

Best of all, said Tyler’s mother Tammy, is when her son’s soccer team shows up in the front row to cheer him on. “That really is the magic of ‘The Nutcracker’ and the magic of the season,” she said.

‘Nuncrackers,’ too

But OK, if you just can’t stomach all that sweet sincerity — if you’d rather season your Christmas with satire — head up to Woodland for a performance of “Nuncrackers,” one of the many sequels to the whacky Off-Broadway smash hit, “Nunsense.”

This particular misadventure involves the nuns at the Mount Saint Helens School (which isn’t where you think — it’s a parochial school in New Jersey) going totally “Wayne’s World” in their basement as they tape a cable-access Christmas show. This includes their own absurd attempt at “The Nutcracker.”

Get ready for duelling Sugar Plum Fairies, songs like “Santa Ain’t Coming to Our House” and “Here We Come A-Waffling,” and an overabundance of rum in the mandatory fruitcake.