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A bigger Mother Ginger reflects the growing ambitions of free Nutcracker performance
Southeast Iowa Union offers audio versions of articles using Instaread. Some words may be mispronounced.
WASHINGTON — What began five years ago as a modest community ballet has grown into a larger, more technically demanding production that now fills the stage at the Washington Community Theater.
Miss Elizabeth’s Academy of Classical Ballet marked that growth this season with its fifth annual performance of The Nutcracker, a free production that has expanded in scale, choreography and backstage complexity while remaining rooted in accessibility and community effort.
That evolution became most visible when Mother Ginger attempted to make her entrance.
The character’s oversize skirt, built on a rolling platform and layered piece by piece, had grown so large that it would not fit through the stage wings during dress rehearsals. The solution was not to shrink the costume, but to adapt the space around it.
“We actually had to lift part of the curtain wings up because we found out that she would not fit through a regular wing,” said Elizabeth Billups, program director and instructor at Miss Elizabeth’s Academy of Classical Ballet. “Dress rehearsals turned into, ‘Yes, your dress is too big, ma’am. We’re going to have to raise a wing.’”
The moment captured how the academy’s Nutcracker has developed over five years. Each season has brought more dancers, more detailed costuming and more classical choreography, even as the production continues to operate with limited resources and an all-volunteer backbone.
The expanding Mother Ginger costume was one of several additions introduced this year. Performer Jessica Hamm, who played Mother Ginger and designed the costume, described the structure as part costume and part moving set.
“I’m standing on a rolling platform, and then I’ve got a big skirt,” Hamm said. “There’s an overskirt that goes on, then this dress goes on top, and then I add all the extra pieces.”
As the costume grew, so did the coordination required backstage. Thankfully, dress rehearsal helped sort out details like having someone push Mother Ginger onto stage and directing dancers to be careful not to knock Hamm down as they passed through her large skirt.
The costume was designed and built over several months, an ambitious undertaking for a production that operates with a limited budget.
“We don’t have the budget. We’re limited,” Billups said. “But we’re trying to make it work.”
Even so, Billups and Hamm both shared a vision of bringing the costume to life as it better represents the original Nutcracker Mother Ginger costume.
Budget restraints and a smaller academy has not deterred Billups, her dancers and volunteers from continuing to reach for bigger and better dreams each year.
One way Billups does this while putting educating her students first includes rotating major roles every two years so multiple dancers learn them, creating both opportunity and continuity.
“We do that so more than one person knows the role,” she said. “The person who had it before becomes a mentor for the person coming in.”
The approach proved valuable this season, when personal milestones and life changes reduced the number of available performers.
“One of our girls moved, and another had a baby two weeks ago, so we were short people,” Lily Billups, who played many roles this year, said. “You just have to adjust.”
As dancers progress through the program, the choreography has grown more demanding. Billups said the production has steadily moved toward more traditional classical material as students gain experience.
“We’re using more authentic choreography, and we have better costumes and props,” she said. “We’ve just fine tuned our timing and how we work together.”
Returning performers help anchor that progress. Samuel Snyder reprised the role of the Nutcracker this year after first performing it last season, taking on additional steps and more intricate choreography.
“They trained me, taught me the steps, and I did them,” Snyder said. “This year, they added more steps, and I learned those.”
Despite that growth, the academy has kept the show free to attend. After each performance, audiences were invited to stay for a complimentary dessert reception in the lobby, an extension of a philosophy Billups said guides everything the academy does.
“We do it for free because I think it’s really important to have dance, and ballet especially, accessible to anyone, everyone,” she said. “It’s family friendly. It’s a good, entertaining show, and I want that to be available to anyone who wants to bring their families together.”
That emphasis on access reaches beyond the stage. Billups said academy dancers regularly perform at libraries and nursing homes, reinforcing the idea that ballet belongs in the community rather than behind a ticket price.
Behind the scenes, volunteers, parents and technicians work together to keep the production running smoothly. Billups acknowledged that collective effort from the stage after one performance.
“It takes a small village to put this production on,” she told the audience. “This show could not happen without them.”
After the second show, the fatigue was evident, but so was the satisfaction.
“It will hit me hard later tonight,” Billups said. “But it’s a good tired.”
Five years in, the academy’s Nutcracker is larger, more polished and more demanding than when it began. Its continued growth has come not from removing limitations, but from adapting to them together, even when that means lifting the curtain to make room.
Comments: AnnaMarie.Kruse@southeastiowaunion.com
