Olivia Lucianno, a junior at SBRHS, starred as Clara in the annual holiday show The Nutcracker, which is put on by her dance school Festival Ballet Providence. Olivia has been part of The Nutcracker for nine years now. She has played the roles of an angel, a candy doll, a party girl, a sugarplum attendant, and the trepak corps. Olivia has starred as Clara for three years now.

She explained that the cast has been preparing for their annual show since September. The first month and a half of rehearsals are focused on “learning choreography and creating that 19th-century child persona,” says Olivia. After everyone learns their roles, the cast runs the scenes and are given corrections by Choreographer, Mihailo Djuric, and Rehearsal Directors, Ivaylo Alexiev, Mindaugas Bauzys, Leticia Guerrero, and Viktor Plotnikov. The cast repeats the scenes as many times as necessary to reach perfection. In November, the children from other studios join in and they perform full run-throughs of the show.

Olivia said that she became interested in being involved in The Nutcracker when she was just six years old. She “knew I wanted to be a part of it after watching.” Her favorite part of being in the production is “going to the theater, being in costume, staying in professional dressing rooms, and being able to take class with the company on stage.”

Before the show was performed, more than 50 of the company’s costumes were stolen from their warehouse in Pawtucket, according to Mihailo Djuric (Artistic Director). When the company directors picked up the crates of costumes, several of them were half empty or empty.

Despite this setback, dance companies including Ballet Met (Columbus, OH), Joffrey Ballet (Chicago, IL), and Mobile Ballet (Mobile, AL), among others, allowed Festival Ballet to rent their costumes. Olivia said that although her costume was not stolen, “the company stayed pretty positive through it all, which definitely helped with the transition and fitting for the new costumes.”

On Tuesday, December 20, several of the costumes that were stolen were handed back over to police. Neither the thief nor the attorney that handed the costumes over to the police were identified publicly.

With the intense rehearsal schedule, especially in the weeks before the show, it becomes difficult for Olivia, who takes Advanced Placement and Level 1 classes, to balance her schoolwork with the show. Olivia said that “sometimes I try to take my homework to rehearsals but it can be difficult to focus at the studio, so generally I have a lot of late nights at home doing schoolwork.”

Despite the setbacks that the show faced and the struggle of balancing schoolwork with the show schedule, Olivia and the rest of the cast put on a wonderful show. Many of Olivia’s friends and teachers even went to see her dance. Olivia said that she will “absolutely be doing The Nutcracker next year.”