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Daniel Salinas and Danielle Ireland, who will portray the Nutcracker and Clara in Santa Barbara Festival Ballet's Nutcracker this weekend, flank Mayor Marty Blum along with other company dancers. The mayor is declaring this week as Nutcracker Week in Santa Barbara in honor of the production's 35th anniversary. Courtesy photo.

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Festival Ballet's Nutcracker steeped in tradition

By ERIC LINDBERG — Dec. 8, 2009

Traditions run deep in the colorful costumes and carefully choreographed dance moves of the Santa Barbara Festival Ballet’s Nutcracker.

When the familiar notes of Tchaikovsky’s score swell through the Arlington Theater this weekend, the pre-professional ballet company will have put on the Nutcracker for 35 straight years.

Dancers and symphony players have returned year after year — for decades, even — to take part in the popular production. Others have seen their children grow up and take on the roles they once performed.

But this year has an added sense of tradition.

In the audience on Saturday evening will be retired Santa Barbara Symphony conductor Ronald Ondrejka, who first envisioned a full production of the Nutcracker ballet in Santa Barbara, along with Bob and Carol Hanlin, who founded Goleta Civic Ballet and directed the first 17 years of the holiday performance.

“It really is a homegrown production that has lasted these 35 years,” Carol Hanlin said, speaking by phone from her Oregon home.

Carol said they would have never taken on the enormous task of putting on such a large production without the prompting of Ondrejka.

“It was a huge undertaking,” she said. “Very terrifying.”

She recalled a handful of minor disasters that arose during the first performance — starting with the circuits in the Granada Theatre blowing out under the stress of rented lighting equipment needed for the show.

That happened during the dress rehearsal on the night before the curtain rose, and the technical staff told Carol that they might not have lighting the following night.

“We did have lights after all,” she said. “They got it all fixed.”

On another occasion, a dancer spent the first act of the production in a wardrobe trailer, sewing together costumes for the second act.

“It came right down to the wire, as those things do,” Carol said.

Working on a tight budget and plenty of volunteer labor, the Hanlins gradually developed the show into a holiday tradition in the community. They eventually turned over the reins of their ballet company to Denise Rinaldi, who has continued their tradition as the artistic director of the studio.

After moving to the Arlington Theater several years after the inaugural production, the Nutcracker has been reliably held during the second weekend in December. Featuring more than 100 performers, the event is typically seen by more than 3,000 audience members.

As a further sign of the production’s impact on the community, Mayor Marty Blum is declaring this week as Nutcracker Week in Santa Barbara in honor of the 35th anniversary.

“We’re Santa Barbara’s Nutcracker,” said Cindy Elster, board president of the ballet company. “The community has embraced us.”

Elster has been in the audience for 33 of the past 35 years, ever since she began a holiday tradition to attend the ballet with her mother.

“This was my escape, this was my weekend with my mother,” she said, describing how she had four brothers and relished the opportunity to get away from the guys for a short time.

Elster touted what she termed the full cultural experience of the Festival Ballet’s Nutcracker. Audience members get to sit in the historic Arlington, listen to a live symphony orchestra and witness classic ballet, an experience that has yet to be replicated along the Central Coast in her estimation.

“It’s so amazing to have so many families that walk in now, third and fourth generation strong,” she said, adding, “It’s a true holiday gift.”

Diana Replogle-Purinton is one of those with deep ties to the production. She has been on stage or working backstage for every single performance of the Nutcracker during the past 35 years.

She is most recognizable as Frau Silberhaus, a role she has assumed year after year for more than two decades. Replogle-Purinton began as a dancer with Goleta Civic Ballet at age 17 and performed in the first show.

She recounted how the dancers rehearsed for six months during that initial production in order to nail down the choreography.

“For me, personally, it was too long,” she said. “When the curtain went down, I threw my toe shoes in the back of the closet and I was never going to listen to Tchaikovsky’s music again.”

But the lure of the Nutcracker won her over and she returned the following year, never to leave again. It has become a family tradition as well.

Her son, Erik, made his first appearance in the show as an 8-month-old baby nearly two decades ago, while her daughter, Kira, has been dancing in the Nutcracker for a decade.

“This year, we have nine second-generation dancers, and eight of them started dancing various roles as kids,” she said, adding later, “Every year, I’m amazed at how many people come up to me in the audience and say, ‘My Christmas season starts when I see the Nutcracker ballet.’”

When the curtain goes up this Saturday, audience members will be treated to a performance featuring guest artist Monica Stephenson of Los Angeles Ballet, Scott Pascal of Company C Contemporary Ballet, and Darion Smith of Janusphere Dance Company. Elise Unruh will conduct the orchestra.

Performances take place on Saturday at 2:30 and 7 p.m., and on Sunday at 2:30 p.m. More information is available at www.santabarbarafestivalballet.com.

The Hanlins, who haven’t seen the Nutcracker in Santa Barbara since they moved away 19 years ago, are looking forward to seeing some familiar faces and enjoying the show.

Carol said her husband usually handled props backstage during the show and she would sit in a box along the side of the theater, calling light cues on a headset.

“This time, I can basically just sit and enjoy it,” she said. “It will be great fun to see how much it has changed."

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Let's start a fight : 12/10/2009

State Street Ballet's Version is much better, with real professionals.

The Troll

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Only Troll fights : 12/14/2009

Silly Troll, eveyone knows you never know what you are speaking about, nor do you ever tell the truth.
Santa Barbara Festival Ballet and State Street Ballet BOTH put on incredible shows. Call the Box Offices, see who had the larger audience...oh!...Arlington? How about that! Read their program...oh!...35 years...Santa Barbara's Nutcracker!
Oh!...Professional Guest Artist? Oh...incredible Pre-Professional Dancers? Do you ever crawl out of your hole?
Santa Barbara folks know the story...you should read more TheDailySound! Silly Troll...did you see how there were no remarks after your silly comment. Santa Barbara is tierd of you! Most People is SB know the REAL story.
Remember...it is about the performers...not a silly troll. (Sounds like you are a student of the Rodney school of thought -.
respect Rodney's kids...please...they are just students, not professionals, and yes , they too had professional dancers on their stage). Where was their Live Symphony Orchestra? A tape recorder??? Silly Troll

SBer

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Only Troll Fights : 12/16/2009

Thank you SBer!

SB Dancer

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