Strictly Ballet and RiverStage Community Theatre this week announced the date and time of auditions for this year’s “A Lewisburg Victorian Nutcracker.” Amy Casimir, owner of Strictly Ballet and artistic director of the Nutcracker said, “On Saturday, August 27th, auditions will be held in my studio, Strictly Ballet, on the second floor of the GreenSpace Center in Lewisburg at 815 Market St., starting at noon for the youngest performers (5 – 6 year-olds), and ending after the adult auditioners, who will begin at 3:15.” Casimir continued, “Rather than auditioning for specific roles, we group performers by age at the auditions for everyone’s comfort and convenience. Once we see who we’ve got, we spend the next week casting the ballet — everyone who auditions will get a role. We will announce the cast list the following Saturday, September 3rd, and rehearsals will begin Saturday, September 10th. The performance this year will be on Saturday, December 17th.”

This will be the fifth year of performing “A Lewisburg Victorian Nutcracker,” and Casimir reflected, “It’s been a pretty good run so far, especially considering how much the pandemic interfered with live performance over the last few years. We have a pretty close-knit production team, but as we accomplish one goal or perfect a process, the next year we expand the cast or otherwise upset the applecart and have to re-think, re-consider and renew our approach to the ballet. It’s exhausting but exhilarating.”

Added her husband and producer of the ballet, Trey Casimir, “It is only possible due to the commitment, support and hard work of the community, from our youngest, smallest Mouse to our most grizzled local donor. We have been amazed from the beginning at what is possible when the community supports something. Not only do the performers have to put in long hours and hard work learning and refining their roles, but we also need the donations of local individuals and businesses and the labor of costumers, stagehands and designers to realize the vision onstage. I’ve tried to accomplish various things in Lewisburg in my lifetime, and I can tell you — if the community wants it, it will happen, but if it doesn’t you’ll beat your head against a wall!”

Amy resumed, “We try to make it as fun and interesting for the performers as possible, but we also are trying to create the most professional, enjoyable evening of dance for the audience that we can, and we have high expectations of our performers. Every year we have our performers (and their parents, where appropriate) sign a performance contract that spells out those expectations clearly, but sometimes we have a family that either doesn’t read it or doesn’t believe it. Most of those families stick with it and are very satisfied to see the results of their discipline and hard work, but occasionally a family will realize the commitment is too great and will drop out. We have a family of our own, and totally understand the need to juggle various interests, but we also are responsible to the audience, and we take that responsibility seriously. For families who aren’t sure if this is right for them, we urge you to read the contract online and consider carefully the commitment that will be involved. On the other hand, if you decided in the past that it was too much but now your conditions have changed, please come and audition again!”

Trey followed up, “Although I was a Modern dancer in my career, I studied and respected the discipline of ballet, and that is what ballet is: a discipline. Strictly Ballet’s dancers received wonderful praise from an attendee at our recent Victorian Fairy Garden Party: ‘…it was very refreshing to see the Strictly Ballet dancers. Classical music, poised young ladies, and no creepy, age inappropriate moves…’ Our ‘Nutcracker’ will not only include young ladies, but all performers will be expected to be poised and not creepy! Seriously, though, it is through the discipline of the dancers that the beauty of ballet happens. We have as much fun in rehearsals as we possibly can, but we make no apologies for encouraging the discipline that is a crucial component of a successful ballet performance.”

For more information, including start times for all age groups and the performance contract, go to: Strictly Ballet Arts on Instagram or Facebook, or go to strictlyballetarts.com.