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When the clock strikes midnight, magic happens. Clara Stahlbaum finds her Christmas gift, a nutcracker, has come to life. He fights the Mouse King and defeats him with Clara's help. To thank Clara, he turns into a prince and takes Clara to the Land of Sweets and the Palace of the Sugar Plum Fairy.
The Nutcracker ballet has been a Christmas classic since its world premier in 1892 at the Maryinsky Theater in Russia.
This year, San Jose Dance Theatre will perform the Christmas classic Dec. 68 at the San Jose Center for the Performing Arts, 255 Almaden Blvd.
"We've always had a lot of young dancers in the piece," says assistant director Crystal Petzel. "This year is no exception."
More than 100 dancers will perform in The Nutcracker, the great majority of which are children.
Sunnyvale resident Derek Bowman Pincus will play the lead role of the Nutcracker in this year's performance.
Petzel says Pincus stood out in the audition because he is both a good actor and a good dancer.
"He knows how to engage the audience, which is especially important in character ballets like this," Petzel says. "He is confident and not embarrassed to try new things."
Pincus, a fifth-grader at Washington Open School, watched the San Jose Dance Theatre's production of The Nutcracker in 1998 and wanted to be a part of it. So his mother, Stacie Bowman, enrolled him and his sister in the ballet classes at the school of the San Jose Dance Theatre in 1999. He has studied dancing on and off ever since.
He has performed in The Nutcracker every year for the past four years. He has played the role of Party Boy twice and has played Clara's brother, Fritz, once.
"I really like dancing because it involves a lot of jumping," says Pincus, whose favorite sport is hurdling. "It also helps me become more athletic and flexible."
Pincus' experience acting in school plays has also helped him play the roles. He has performed in Guys and Dolls and Cinderella and is rehearsing for The Wizard of Oz.
Despite his dancing and acting training, Pincus says he was nervous when the San Jose Dance Theatre told him that he would play the title role.
"I wasn't sure if I could be good enough to do most of the moves," Pincus says. "But now that I've got a hand on it, I am very excited."
Bowman is also excited about the upcoming performance, not only because Pincus will be on the stage but also because she will play Clara's mother for the third time.
"I've always wanted to be a ballerina but I was too tall and didn't have the right body type," says Bowman, who studied ballet for five years when she was little. "Being in the performance is like reliving my childhood dream."
For more information, call the San Jose Dance Theatre at 408.286.9905 or visit www.sjdt.org.
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Photograph courtesy of Ballet San Jose Silicon Valley