“The Nutcracker” ballet has been a global holiday classic for decades, with its music ringing of Christmas.. For the past six years, the Lake Tahoe Dance Collective has performed this magical ballet with a Tahoe twist on the weekend before Christmas. The production features a cast of local children with professional dancers in the lead roles. 

This season, Incline’s Lily Bonner, a 6th grader at Lake Tahoe School, will dance the role of Clara, the young girl who dreams that her toy Nutcracker comes alive and becomes a prince. Lily has studied ballet since the age of 9  and has been dancing with the Lake Tahoe Dance Collective in Incline Village and Tahoe City for the past three years. After auditions in late September, Lily found out that she had been cast in this coveted role. “I felt super excited, and when I found out, my stomach jumped, and I wanted to start rehearsing immediately. I was so excited.” 

Lily rehearses six days a week, and other student dancers from around the Tahoe Basin have had weekly rehearsals since the beginning of October. Rehearsals take place after regular ballet classes and continue through the performances on December 19-21. Other dancers from Incline Village include Silas Lefrancois as Lily’s on-stage brother, Fritz, Blake Brockman, Sofia Sacci, Rose Davison, Grace Hughes, Harry Hughes, Emilia Cruz, Aspen Conway, Allison and Charlotte Meyer, Miya Lefrancois, and Calixta Cordoba Sosa.

New York City Ballet’s Indiana Woodward will travel to Tahoe for the third year to dance the role of the Sugar Plum Fairy. Boston Ballet’s Lawrence Rines Munro will dance as her Cavalier.

In 2023 and 2024, a generous grant from the Tahoe Community Foundation, formerly known as Parasol, funded delightful new costumes and updates to the sets and technical equipment which greatly elevated the presentation. The sets were designed to evoke the historic Tahoe Tavern in the 1920s and the Land of the Sweets, where Hot Chocolate, Marzipan, and Christmas Cookies dance across the stage.

Christin Hanna, Founder and Executive and Artistic Director of the Lake Tahoe Dance Collective, trains and rehearses the 51 young dancers in the cast, many of whom have been dancing in her Tahoe City and Incline studios for years. Part of the tradition of this ballet is that dancers can measure their success in both artistry and technique as they grow up dancing new and more challenging roles. This year, Romi Broglio and Miriam Kallmes, high school students and senior members of the LTDC Company are dancing the soloist roles of Snow Queen and Dew Drop. In the Tahoe production’s 2019 premiere, both girls began performing the roles of little mice. Hanna says, “When I look at our youngest ones in their party scene dresses, I know that in a blink of an eye, they’ll be teenagers in lead roles. It’s the perfect example of hard work and discipline paying off.”

Performances take place in the theater at North Tahoe High School on  Friday, December 19th at 7pm and Saturday and Sunday, December 20th and 21st at 3pm. Tickets start at $30, with a limited number of “Pay What You Can” tickets available, at www.laketahoedancecollective.org

Maestro James Rawie proudly announces the 21^st annual production of HANDEL’s MESSIAH now presented by Tahoe Philharmonic Orchestra and Chorus.  The series includes performances in five distinct locations. The Reno-Tahoe-Gardnerville and South Lake Tahoe communities continue enjoying this wonderful holiday MESSIAH tradition. 

Messiah was first performed in Dublin, Ireland on March 23, 1742 and was conducted by its composer, George Frederic Handel. It continues to be a masterpiece that has left audiences in awe for 279 years. Tahoe Philharmonic’s production is a celebration of the holidays and includes not only favorite selections from Messiah Parts One and Three, but also seasonal carols that the audience will be most welcome to join in singing. 

Joining the Tahoe Philharmonic Orchestra and Chorus for this production are Anne Davidson, Anna Helwing and Debbie Sessions, sopranos; Lorelei vanPeborgh and Michele Izor, mezzo; Michael Lloyd, tenor; and Stuart Duke, baritone. TahoePhil Chamber Orchestra features Cliff Richardson as concertmaster; Katie Cardoza and Nick Haines as continuo; with Joshua Dunlap and Cortez Montalbo on Baroque trumpets. All performances will be conducted by Maestro James Rawie, TahoePhil’s Founder and Executive Artistic Director. 

Tickets are available online at  www.tickettailor.com/events/tahoephilharmonic   or at the door 30 minutes prior to each concert. General admission is $30 adults; preferred seating is $40 and $15 for youth/students and Premium seating is $50 adults/$25 youth.  Seniors enjoy a $5 discount in all seating areas. All students under 23 (with ID) are free. 

WHERE and WHEN

Saturday. Dec. 13.. 6:30pm   RENO: St Luke’s Lutheran Church • 3835 Lakeside Dr  

Sunday. Dec. 14.. 3:00pm   RENO: St Rose of Lima Church •100 Bishop Manogue Dr

Friday. Dec. 19.. 6:30pm   INCLINE: St. Francis Catholic Church- 701 Mt. Rose Hwy

Sunday. Dec. 21.. 3:00pm   SOUTHLAKE: MountainHouse- 3580 Blackwood Rd.

For TOUR CROATIA info or to Audition, call 765-862-2282. Visit TahoePhil at www.Tahoe-Philharmonic.com, or email at TahoePhilharmonic@gmail.com