‘It’s every little ballerina girl’s dream’

The Indiana University ballet department’s enclave on the third floor of the Musical Arts Center is filled with a frenzy of preparation for a full run of “The Nutcracker.” Because three different casts will be performing the show over Dec. 5-7 and Dec. 12-13, two other runs have already taken place.

Dancers who are finished for the day find seats around the perimeter of the studio floor to watch Cast 1’s run. Child performers giggle as they race around the halls. Semi-costumed students slip on pointe shoes, stretch by the barres and practice leaps and turns.

“Dancers, let’s get started as soon as we can,” Sarah Wroth, chair of the IU ballet department, calls.

Outside, rain pours and campus empties on the eve of a week-long Thanksgiving break. Here, there’s still work to do.

Nov. 21

Ella Sperry steps into the studio, touches her hair to ensure it’s set and finds her place by a barre. When the room is finally brought to quiet, the rehearsal begins. All eyes fall on Sperry as she ventures to the center of the room, wearing the youthful wonder of protagonist Marie on her face.

Sperry, a senior studying ballet and economics, is especially central in IU’s production. Professor of Music (Ballet) Sasha Janes’ nationally-recognized reimagination of E.T.A. Hoffmann’s 209-year-old story casts Marie and the Sugar Plum Fairy as the same dancer. While most “Nutcracker” roles are limited to one- to two-minute entertaining “divertissement” dances in the second act meant to add interest outside of the show’s plot, Sperry’s combined leading roles means she performs the entire ballet.

“It’s every little ballerina girl’s dream to end up playing Marie and the Sugar Plum Fairy,” Sperry, who started dancing at the age of 4 in Pittsburgh, said. “Since they’re the same person in Sasha’s ballet, it’s really special to be able to tell the whole story from beginning to end.”

Still, Sperry’s portrayal of two leading roles has held challenges, including an unusually condensed rehearsal schedule. This year’s “Fall Ballet,” the department’s annual short-piece showcase, happened several weeks later than usual. As a result, this final rehearsal before the tech week following Thanksgiving is the product of just a few weeks of rigorous practice.

“The role is super daunting, because you have to remember so much material,” Sperry said. “Coming home every night after a long rehearsal day and reviewing everything has been super important for me.”

Sperry said staying on top of the athletic demands of her roles has also been a priority. During her sophomore year at IU, she suffered a shin fracture that sidelined her for six to eight weeks in a rehabilitative boot. She said the setback made her more conscious of recovery and her physical limits.

“Dancers are super driven, so we just want to keep pushing,” Sperry said. “But after having a serious injury, I would rather stop dancing earlier and rest than keep pushing myself and it gets worse. It’s a super fine line, but physical maintenance at the end of a long day is important to keep doing what we do.”

Sperry’s methodical preparation has facilitated fluidity. She delicately moves across the studio floor, as if carried by a spirit of childhood whimsy. She is ever-immersed in the show’s comic and magical world — even when the borders of that world are amorphous. Inches from dancing mice and leaping nutcrackers, students whisper to each other, sneak mid-rehearsal snacks and headbang along with the rehearsal pianist.

“Dancing with my class for the last four years, everyone gets super close,” Sperry said. “And we’re quite literally playing a family onstage. It’s pretty natural acting.”

As Sperry moves through the second-act grand pas as the Sugar Plum Fairy, a sequence of a duet with partner Stanley Cannon, a Cannon solo and a Sperry solo in rapid succession, her classmates watch with rapt attention. The only sounds in the studio during Sperry’s solo are the twinkling notes of the piano, her pointe shoes knocking against the floor and her sharp breaths.

Relief floods Sperry’s flushed face as she extends her arm and, panting, concludes the solo. She grins, rolls her eyes with a curtsy and runs to hug Cannon.

“I was really nervous this morning, but as soon as it started, it was just so much fun,” Sperry said. “I’m exhausted now, but it’s super rewarding to do it all the way and feel good about how it went.”

The end of a successful run-through and the arrival of a week-long break elicits deafening applause from the cast. Now, it’s time to rest.

“I think it looks really good — the standard keeps getting higher and higher every year,” Janes says to the cast as they gather in a final huddle. “Stay in shape, be safe and have fun.”

Dec. 1

The Musical Arts Center stage is cloaked in ethereal white light, evocative of snow, as the scene is set. The stage crew moves props into place and directors give dancers last-minute notes about the show’s opening scenes.

When the clock strikes 7 p.m., the MAC’s grand purple curtain falls. A current of backstage chatter quiets as the theater goes dark. It’s time for the first full onstage run.

The rehearsal is meant to simulate live performance as closely as possible. A recording of an orchestra tuning and audience applause plays as the curtain rises, mimicking the atmosphere dancers will encounter this weekend. Still, there’s room for imperfection. The show’s prologue stops and starts for set adjustments and tinkering with the elaborate light projections that set Janes’ production apart.

Sperry, clad in a flowing pink gown and a bow in her hair, emerges to initiate the show’s story. The stage is overtaken with scenes of an opulent Christmas party and bickering siblings, a contrast of magic and reality.

Although Sperry has some 14 years of dancing in “Nutcracker” productions under her belt, she said costumes, wigs and a set stage help make her acting more natural. Even so, this rehearsal isn’t exactly how the final production will feel. The dancing continues while microphoned directors call out for prop, spacing and cue adjustments. When a dancer’s leap ends in a fall to the ground, the story proceeds at directors’ calls for performers to “keep going.”

“We can just kind of laugh little things off, especially in the first run,” Sperry said. “But it gets to the point where, if this were a show, we would have to make everything work, so you have to keep going no matter what happens.”

The hours pass in a pattern of ebbs and flows. Directors call out comments while dancers continue the story. Periodically, the production stops for larger readjustments, like when the first-act battle scene between the Nutcracker Prince and mice is run three times to sort out prop difficulties.

“Usually, you’re doing the ballet from beginning to end with a 20-minute intermission,” Sperry said. “But in tech rehearsals, it’s spread over three hours, and you’re stopping and running stuff again. We like to tell ourselves this is the hardest it will be — it’s very exhausting.”

When rehearsal ends at 10 p.m., Sperry’s feet are swollen and throbbing after three hours on pointe. She plans to return home to an ice bucket, compression boots and a late-night second dinner. Tomorrow evening, she gets to rest and watch another cast run the show.

“It’s always hard and scary coming back after a week off, but overall, I’m happy with how the rehearsal went,” Sperry said. “We have this whole week to make it better. Starting at a really good place feels good because we’re only going to build up on top of that.”

Dec. 3

Simulation grows closer and closer to reality. At this Wednesday evening final dress rehearsal, IU Chamber and University Orchestra members accompany the dancers from the pit. Directors are quiet watching the scenes unfold. Gone is the stop-and-start of the first stage run: the dancers’ dreamlike world, close to being fully realized, has taken on a delicate life of its own.

Sperry watches the colorful episodes of the divertissements with Cannon by her side, at once removed from and constantly absorbed in the action. Occasionally, she and Cannon get pulled into the fun, stepping along with the other dancers or helping hold set pieces.

Sperry said being engrossed in rehearsals helps her dance her best.

“Every run is a new run, so I try to just come in with an open mind,” Sperry said. “If you get too in your head, I think it shows.”

When Sperry resumes her place at center stage, this attention is vital. Now dressed in regal magenta and a tiara, she has transformed from the young, curious Marie to the mature, self-assured Sugar Plum Fairy. She and Cannon begin the second-act grand pas, the show’s emotional climax.

The sequence begins with a tender duet, called a pas de deux. The pair embrace dignified dramatics in nimble harmony with each other as they move through demanding turns, leaps and lifts to the sounds of a crescendoing orchestra.

“The biggest thing I’m thinking about during the grand pas is pacing my stamina,” Sperry said. “It’s the whole pas de deux, I have maybe 45 seconds offstage during the male solo, I have my solo and then it’s the coda. And then I’m thinking about all the corrections I’ve gotten.”

TOP LEFT Mia Nelson, who plays the Columbine Doll, dances for the children during “The Nutcracker” on Dec. 3, 2025, at the Indiana University Musical Arts Center in Bloomington. TOP RIGHT Jacob Shapiro, who plays the Soldier Doll, performs for the children during “The Nutcracker” on Dec. 3, 2025, at the Indiana University Musical Arts Center in Bloomington. BOTTOM LEFT Lillian Smith, who plays Drosselmeier, dances with Snowflakes during “The Nutcracker” on Dec. 3, 2025, at the Musical Arts Center in Bloomington. BOTTOM RIGHT Oscar Lewis, who plays the Mouse King, takes the Nutcracker’s sword (Stanley Cannon) during “The Nutcracker” on Dec. 3, 2025, at the Musical Arts Center in Bloomington.

Katherine Maners | IDS

Still, emotion must remain at the center of Sperry’s dancing.

“Mostly, I’m trying just to connect with my partner and have fun performing for the audience,” she said.

When Sperry emerges after her brief break for Cannon’s solo, she projects both expressive grace and lightheartedness. She said capturing this duality has been one of the biggest challenges involved in Janes’ casting of Marie and the Sugar Plum Fairy, Marie’s seemingly perfect quasi-guardian angel, as the same dancer.

“Sasha reminded me that Marie is the same person as the Sugar Plum: I can still have fun and be the kid that Marie is during the pas,” Sperry said. “It is romantic, but it’s also just, ‘Oh look, we’ve done the whole ballet and now let’s just have fun.’”

The grand pas concludes with a brief coda of Sperry and Cannon reunited onstage, having fused the fragile beauty of romance with the comfort and safety of camaraderie. Then, a wave of color washes over the stage as the full cast returns to dance the finale. Sperry now wears Marie’s light pink gown and the Sugar Plum Fairy’s tiara, achieving unity between her roles. She is left cradling the nutcracker at center stage as the curtain falls.

After the cast completes its bows, Sperry sits, cradling her pointe shoe-clad feet. She stares out at the MAC’s sea of red seats, to be filled in two days’ time by eager balletgoers.

Sperry will face light rehearsals tomorrow, but the work is done. On Friday, she will dance the culmination of her IU — and lifelong — ballet career.

“My parents took me to see ‘The Nutcracker’ when I was 3 years old, when I hadn’t even started ballet,” Sperry said. “My mom told me when the Sugar Plum Fairy came onstage I said ‘that’s me, that’s what I am.’”

Sperry smiled. “Well, now that is me.”

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