When the curtain lifts for the Princeton Dance and Theatre Studio’s new interpretation of the “Nutcracker,” called “Soup to Nuts,” at the Peddie School on December 18 and 19, the prince will be played by Drew Nelson, a nine-year-old third-grader at the Wicoff School in Plainsboro. He will barely have had time to catch his breath from ten performances as one of Fagin’s boys in the Kelsey Theatre production of “Oliver!” at Mercer County Community College. The last performance was held over the Thanksgiving holiday weekend.
Other Plainsboro dancers include Alexis Biegeleisen, Molly Brossman, Alexa Hoyne, Juliet Martone, MacKenzie Nelson (Drew’s 12-year-old sister), Claire Su, Sophia Tian, Henry Velandia, Lynna Ye. West Windsor dancers are Alejandra Arrue, Aana Bansal, Katherine Epstein, Iris Foster, Alexander Inkiow, Adrienne Kaplowitz, Jack Otterson, Sage Otterson, Aimee Ozeki, Alyssa Paraggio,and Laura Whitby
Drew started dancing at the age of six. His schedule includes ballet and jazz at the Princeton Dance and Theatre Studio two to three times a week. He acknowledges that even for his busy family it has been an unusually hectic few months with a full slate of rehearsals and performances for both shows. “With two things it seemed we were always driving from one place to another.” And he admits it can get confusing. “At an Oliver rehearsal I might do a part from the Nutcracker. One time I broke out into a ballet step.”
It was confusing, all right, agrees his mother, Suzaane, who teaches at PDT. (Drew’s sister, Alexandra, 14, does not dance, but is herhorseback riding lessons add to the family schedule just like Drew and MacKenzie’s dance classes..) “There wouldd be a double, triple, quadruple checking of the schedule every day to check where he was supposed to be and how I was supposed to get him there.”
Suzanne says she and her husband, Kevin, who is assistant director of regional operations for Bristol Myers Squibb, made it perfectly clear that getting homework done was a priority. “We told him if you don’t get your homework done you can’t attend rehearsal. And if you can’t attend rehearsal you can’t be in the performance.” To complete 20 minutes of reading a day she says sometimes he took a flashlight to read in the car. “Would we ever do it again? Maybe,” she says. “Before, he only danced. Now he can act and he can sing. You can’t pay for experience like that. And it’s such a learning process for him.”
When he is not dancing or performing Drew is active in the boy scouts, has played soccer, and is thinking of taking up baseball in the spring. But right now he is just thinking about “Soup to Nuts.”
In this new interpretation of the classic holiday favorite, the audience finds that Clara, whose parents are missing in Africa, has become a ward of the state and is living in a home for wayward girls. The school’s benefactor, Drosselmeyer, and his handsome son (Drew), visit the girls bearing holiday gifts. Clara’s special gift is a wonderful nutcracker. Drosselmeyer sees how badly the girls treat Clara and adds a magic potion to the evening meal. The potion transports Clara to a magical snow forest with the Nutcracker Prince (Drew) as her escort, where she is entertained like royalty in the Lands of the Sweets.
Drew says his favorite scene is the battle in Act I between the soldiers and the mice. “The girls eat soup and they turn into rats. Sheldon (the headmistress’s son) puts his GI Joe into the soup and soldiers come out. And then I get to strangle a bunch of people.”
As in many dance schools Drew is far outnumbered by female students at PDT. “Last year our boys ballet class had ten little boys ranging from six to 11. This year, of those, only three are left, one of whom is Drew,” says Risa Kaplowitz, a resident of West Windsor and co-director of the Princeton Dance and Theatre Studio. “It’s a huge hurdle. It takes a strong individual to stay. We try to provide an atmosphere here that is nurturing and warm. The boys may get harassed at school but they come here and they get a shot of support. Once they succeed in class and performance they are more receptive to sticking it out and that success goes way beyond dance. The other upside is you’re around these beautiful girls all day and they love you for being there.”
Kaplowitz says that dance is an excellent preparation ground for any sport: “The mental acuity you need in a ballet class to put the steps together, the synapses that are formed from the brain to the feet, developing balance, coordination, maneuvering, — these are part of the foundation for all sports. Having the forethought to know where you have to be and what you need to do, shaping a strategic outlook that can be applied on the field — ballet is a discipline that can benefit any athlete,” says Kaplowitz.
Perhaps one of the best known athlete-dancer success stories is that of Lynn Swann who has been hailed as the Baryshnikov of football. The Pittsburgh Steelers’ all-time record holder and one of the greatest football players of his generation started dancing at the age of eight when his mother enrolled him in ballet class. He kept dancing through college at USC. He was drafted by the Steelers in 1974 and played with themas they won four Super Bowls. In 2001 Swann was inducted into the pro football Hall of Fame.
While the synergy between dance and athletics may seem intuitive, social pressure makes it hard to draw and keep boys in dance, especially ballet, says Kaplowitz. Drew’s mother acknowledges that some kids at school last year made fun of Drew and his dancing. “I told him to say, so what, that’s what I am and what I do. I taught him that a lot of it is ignorance, parents who haven’t exposed their children to the arts. If they see him in performances like Oliver or the Nutcracker, they might be impressed. Then he would stand out in a positive way.”
Suzanne herself started dancing at the age of seven and was a company member of Ballet Omaha for four years. Before teaching at PDT she taught at the School of Ballet Omaha and Princeton Ballet School. She feels that society pressures boys to feel uncomfortable with the idea of taking dance classes. “I’ve seen boys in productions who haven’t had the experience in moving and using their bodies. It’s painful to watch.” And yet, she says, in the Storybook Dance classes at PDT where she teaches four and five year old boys, they revel in the joy of movement. “They are so uninhibited, so inventive and comfortable. How is it that they lose that feeling as they get older?”
It’s not that they can’t move, she says. “Society somehow teaches them that it’s not quite right. That’s a shame because anybody, especially athletes, would benefit from something that helps them with flexibility, self-discipline, and focus.”
“I think it would be awesome if people saw this article and wanted to put their boys into dance,” says Suzanne, the dance teacher. Suzanne, the mother, beams with pride when she talks about Drew. “I love to watch him dance. He derives pleasure out of doing his best. As a parent, how do you top that?”
— Euna Kwon Brossman
“Soup to Nuts, a Nutcracker Story,” Princeton Dance and Theater Studio, Mount-Burke Theater, Peddie School, Hightstown, Saturday, December 18, at 3 p.m., and Sunday, December 19, at 1 and 4 p.m. TIckets $15 in advance; $20 at the door. Call 609-514-1600 or go to the Mount-Burke theater box office.
