The Christmas season comes with a plethora of hallmark traditions: decorating the tree, making hot chocolate and decorating cookies for Santa and his reindeer. The famous ballet “The Nutcracker” also falls under this category, and at Colgate University the Colgate Ballet Company’s rendition of the show perfectly encapsulated all of its holiday spirit.
“The Nutcracker” tells the story of a young girl named Clara who receives a toy nutcracker as a Christmas gift. When she falls asleep that night, she dreams that her new toy has come to life to fight off an evil mouse king. The first act takes the audience through the story of the Christmas gift exchange and the battle with the mouse king, and the second includes a number of individual performances ranging from sugar plum fairies to exotic flowers, which are put on in honor of Clara and her nutcracker, who has been transformed into a human boy.
Colgate’s ballerinas delivered captivating performances at Brehmer Theater on both Friday and Saturday night, with a final matinee on Sunday morning. I was lucky enough to attend the concluding Sunday show, which felt particularly emotional — not only because it was the last performance of the weekend, but also because of the incredible artistry displayed on stage by all the dancers.
Between the gorgeous costumes, the impressive set design and the talent of all the dancers, the show was absolutely captivating. Each dancer brought such personality to the roles they played, which is crucial to the performance since the story is told entirely without dialogue. From the beautiful innocence of young Clara to the antagonistic mischief of the mouse king, all the characters in the ballet were portrayed with such attention to detail, and every motion the dancers made was carefully cultivated to show the depths of their characters’ emotions.
First-year Olivia Michael had nothing but praise for the performance.
“I really liked how everyone played an important part in the show,” Michael said. “My favorite dance was definitely the Sugar Plum Fairy dance.”
As incredible as the show itself was, the final bow was one of my favorite parts. Seeing all the elaborately costumed dancers come on stage together for one final number was wonderful, and even more wonderful was watching the graduating seniors tear up as they took their final bows. It was a beautiful, heartfelt conclusion to the show and all of the audience members had smiles on their faces as we filed out of the theater.
If you missed this year’s production of “The Nutcracker”, I highly recommend seeing it next year. It is truly incredible to see what talented dancers we have at Colgate, and as the weather in Hamilton starts to get its wintry chill, this show was the perfect way to kick off the holiday season.
Anika Accomando ’26
Role: Dew Drop
Dance experience: 16 years
How did you prepare for your role?
“My preparation was largely done on my own, and it looked like watching recordings of performances from past years, learning the choreography and altering it to fit my own style best. When I’d gotten the choreography down, the rest of the work was in fitting it in with the staging of the other dancers who were in the Waltz of the Flowers.”
What was your favorite part of the show and why?
“My favorite part of any show is always the atmosphere of the group in the days leading up to the performance. The excitement is palpable, and although it can be a lot of work, everyone is brought together by their passion for the art form. It is a really inspiring time.”
What was the biggest challenge you faced leading up to the show?
“The biggest challenge would probably be in balancing my focus between concentrating on my own performance as well as paying attention to the performances of the other dancers. This was my first Nutcracker as a leader, which meant that I had to look at the shows from a slightly different lens than I have in past years. This also meant that the whole experience was that much more rewarding, though, as there was a lot more work put into it.”
Kevin Han ’25
Role: Nutcracker Prince
Dance experience: None
How did you prepare for your role?
“I played the Nutcracker and preparing for it was incredibly fun! Sophie [Smyth] and Natalia [Legname] were always there at every single practice and having Paris [Wilcox] — a dance instructor from Hamilton — there made it incredibly less stressful since they would all be able to help if I didn’t understand something.”
What was your favorite part of the show and why?
“My favorite part of the show was definitely the Waltz of the Flowers. I think that the dance itself was incredibly well done, as well as really smooth and satisfying to watch!”
What was the biggest challenge you faced leading up to the show?
“I think the biggest challenge I faced leading up to the show was just a lot of inexperience with dancing in general. I had never done a performance like this in my life and with that came a lot of stress and worry about how I would perform on show day. Thankfully, I never messed up too badly, and I owe that to how helpful everybody on the cast was. Seeing everybody dancing backstage to the music and being excited really helped me deal with the nerves of performing in front of an audience. It was especially wholesome whenever somebody would finish their part and everybody would say ‘great job’ and be happy for them.”
Sarah Sexton ’26
Role: Soldier Doll and Coffee from Arabia
Dance Experience: 17 years
How did you prepare for your role?
“I had a few rehearsals for each role to learn the choreography and practice. Both roles were really fun to learn!”
What was your favorite part of the show and why?
“One of my favorite parts of the show was being in Brehmer Theatre again. I also loved seeing the culmination of everyone’s hard work on stage, and it was amazing to see how many people came to support us!”
Sophie Smyth ’25
Role: Sugar Plum Fairy
Dance experience: 18 years
How did you prepare for your role?
“Playing the Sugar Plum Fairy was honestly a dream come true as someone who grew up doing ballet and ‘The Nutcracker.’ Definitely a surreal way to end my last ‘Nutcracker.’ Preparing for it involved a lot of preparation on my own. As a leader of the Ballet Company, we tend to utilize our rehearsal time to teach the other cast members their roles, rather than for our own parts. So a lot of behind the scenes involved me dancing in my room, getting down choreography for both myself and others. Furthermore, my role also involved a pas de deux (a duet with a partner). We had rehearsals with Paris Wilcox, our ballet teacher who is a faculty member at Hamilton College and teaches ballet class to the company twice a week. Since I never did a pas de deux before, it was extremely helpful to have Paris there to guide myself and my partner, who didn’t have any dance experience. ”
What was your favorite part of the show and why?
“My favorite part of the show is the moment right after the show finishes and the whole cast gets to embrace the work they had just put on stage. It’s a moment where we collectively get to share in the ‘Did we just do that?!’ feeling, and it is magical. Additionally, I also love the time we get to spend getting ready together in the dressing room before the show. There’s so much adrenaline and it’s really a great time to bond with our cast mates.”
What was the biggest challenge you faced leading up to the show?
“The biggest challenge I faced leading up to the show was figuring out the details of transitioning to Brehmer Theater. But, because of the help we had, it was able to be done and really paid off. With a bigger venue, it was able to be a bigger production in every aspect, especially in regards to our attendance. Previously, we were only able to have around 200 attendees overall, and this year we had over 500! It was very rewarding to see all of our dancers shine in a real theater stage after all of their hard work.”
Natalia Legname ’25
Role: Snow Queen and Hot Chocolate from Spain
Dance Experience: 18 years
How did you prepare for your role?
“Snow Queen was definitely more challenging for me to prepare for as the choreography is more intense and precise. I had also recently torn both my meniscus and my ACL, so that added a unique challenge preparing for and performing in the show this year. But Snow Queen is a role I’ve always dreamed of having. In my first ‘Nutcracker’ when I was 7, I was a gnome in the snow scene, and now in my last, I was the Snow Queen… it was really full circle for me. So of course even with the challenging choreography and injury, I had to make it happen!”
What was your favorite part of the show and why?
“I have so many favorites that it’s hard to choose, but the Waltz of the Snowflakes is probably my absolute favorite. I just love the scenery, the costumes, the music, the choreography, etc, across all variations of ‘The Nutcracker!’ Snow scene in general is very intricate and intense, with so many technicalities and formations no matter what version of ‘The Nutcracker’ you see. Party and battle scene are definitely up there for me as well because I feel like our cast members have the creative liberty to show parts of their personality through their acting and dancing. I also love the finale in Act II, where we all come together to finish out the show as a collective!”
What was the biggest challenge you faced leading up to the show?
“Bringing the show to Brehmer was a huge step for the Colgate Ballet Company. Beyond just teaching and choreographing, there’s a lot that goes into bringing our show into a bigger space such as revamping the sets and background, lighting and sound, and so much more. We had been planning and working out the details for over a year before the show. It was a huge group effort from everyone, not just the leaders of the Company but also our members and Colgate faculty and staff. While it was a lot of work to both move our production to a bigger stage and revamp it at the same time, everyone involved made the work so enjoyable! Not only that, but we hit record attendance for any performance that the Colgate Ballet Company has held, with 500+ attendees over the course of the weekend. By the end, it truly felt like a ballet, and we could tell that our ballet and community members loved the space and show this year, making all the work totally worth it in the end.”
