All currently enrolled ballet students in the Pre Ballet 2 level and up, AND who are 6 years old on or before September 1, 2025, are eligible to perform in the 2025 Nutcracker. Dancers turning 6 before the end 2025 may be considered on a case-by-case basis. Ballet dancers ages 9 and above must be taking the required number of ballet or contemporary classes for their level and be attending consistently to be eligible to perform. Dancers ages 6-8 years taking Musical Theater Jazz, and/or Hip Hop are also eligible to perform in the Nutcracker.

Auditions for the Nutcracker are held only for our Upper Division/Advanced Division dancers to cast the leading roles of Clara and the Sugar Plum Fairy.  You must be entering Advanced A or B in the fall of 2025 to audition for Clara.  To audition for Sugar Plum, you must be enrolled in Advanced C or D.

Except for our youngest dancers (6 yrs), who will be cast as a Little Mouse or Reindeer, you will not know your child’s role until the cast list is announced on September 18th. With the exception of the roles of Clara and the Sugar Plum fairy, which are determined through an audition process, roles are assigned based on both age and skill level.

The Nutcracker must be your dancer’s first priority.  When registering for the Nutcracker, your dancer agrees to attend all of their regular dance classes, Nutcracker rehearsals, and their costume fitting(s) and agrees to make these a priority over other activities such as sports games or practices, birthday parties, bar mitzvahs, and other social/extracurricular events.  If you know in advance that there will be an unavoidable conflict, you must indicate known conflicts on the conflict calendar at the time of registration. Your student is allowed to miss up to three non-mandatory rehearsals.  Missing mandatory rehearsals is not permitted as it impacts the production.  Missing a mandatory rehearsal may result in a dancer being removed from their role(s).  Absences not reported on the conflict calendar are not excused, except in the case of illness or extreme emergency. If attending classes and rehearsals will be a challenge for your family, it is not the right year to participate in the Nutcracker.

Dancers will be required to miss all (or part) of one school day: Thursday, December 18th.  If this is a concern, please consider opting out of the production.

Eyeglasses are not worn on stage in our Nutcracker production.  If your child requires glasses for dancing, please arrange a meeting with the Executive Artistic Director, Wilhelmina Frankfurt.

Please contact Brynn Vogel at brynn@stapletonschool.org prior to September 29th to inquire about late registration.