- December 13, 2025
Front: Emery Crooke as Clara and Jayden Dawson as Clara’s brother Fritz. Middle: Gabriella Palmer as Snow Queen, Juliane Carpio as North Star, Amelia Palmer as Dew Drop. Back: Emma Thomas as Mouse Queen, Kelan Halloran as Nutcracker/Prince and Ralph Medley as Mouse King. Photo courtesy of Michael Cairns
Emery Crooke as Clara and Jayden Dawson as Clara’s brother Fritz. Photo courtesy of Michael Cairns
Emery Crooke as Clara, with (left to right) Emma Thomas as Mouse Queen, Gabriella Palmer as Snow Queen and Ralph Medley as Mouse King. Photo courtesy of Michael Cairns
Juliane Carpio as North Star. Photo courtesy of Michael Cairns
Emma Thomas as Mouse Queen. Photo courtesy of Michael Cairns
Ralph Medley as Mouse King. Photo courtesy of Michael Cairns
Kelan Halloran as Prince. Photo courtesy of Michael Cairns
Emma Thomas as Nanny and Ralph Medley as Butler. Photo courtesy of Michael Cairns
Adelyn Childers as Sugar Plum in the Family Series narrated show. Photo courtesy of Michael Cairnsv
Sung Woo Han in the Neapolitan Dance from Act III of Swan Lake. Photo: Gene Schiavone.
Gabriella Palmer as Snow Queen. Photo courtesy of Michael Cairns
Amelia Palmer as Dew Drop. Photo courtesy of Michael Cairns
Guest artist Skylar Brandt from the American Ballet Theater will perform as the Sugar Plum Fairy during the full two-act Nutcracker show. Courtesy photo
The Volusia Civic Ballet's production of "The Nutcracker" at the Peabody Auditorium is an annual holiday staple for the community.
The theatre's lobby is transformed into a Candyland, with a decorated Christmas tree and a "Drosselmeyer Toy Shop" adding to the festive ambiance. On stage, audiences are transported to Christmas Eve as they experience the story of Clara, a young girl who receives a magical Nutcracker doll.
"You walk in and it's like, 'Oh my Gosh, the holuday have begun," said Nelly Droznin, president of the Volusia Civic Ballet.
This year, the Civic Ballet will tell that story on Dec. 6 and 7 with a cast of 91 dancers, featuring one of the youngest Claras they've ever cast: Emery Crooke, a 10-year-old from Palm Coast.
"She is a beautifully gifted dancer," said Daniel Walker, assistant artistic director for the Civic Ballet. "I cannot wait for the audience to see her, because I feel like she's just going to light up that stage."
The role of Clara carries the ballet by Russian composer Pyotr Ilyich Tchaikovsky, and that's a tough role, Walker said. But they knew Emery would make the perfect Clara as soon as she walked into the audition in August.
"I feel like everyone in the room looked at each other and we all were on the same page that she had that, as corny as it sounds, Christmas twinkle in her eye," Walker said.
While they honor the traditional choreography of Tchaikovsky's famed ballet, each year's show is an opportunity to look at it from a different lens, he said. A younger Clara allowed them to focus the story on her and her brother Fritz, who is played by Jayden Dawson, a 13-year-old also from Palm Coast.
"It's creatively satisfying and I think it's enjoying for the audience who comes year after year to see a different take every year," Walker said.
This year's guest artists are Skylar Brandt and Sung Woo Han, from the American Ballet Theater. Brandt will perform as the Sugar Plum Fairy and Han will play the Cavalier.
"We're very excited," Droznin said. "Every year we try to bring professional dancers from some other company, so our dancers and the audiences are exposed to [art] outside of our local area, to learn something new and to be inspired."
The Civic Ballet brings together dancers from studios across the Central Florida area. After auditions in August, the cast works with choreographers every Sunday starting in September until the December shows.
Droznin said she admires the children who take part in the ballet year after year. Often times, they're already dancing six days a week with their studios.
"Yet, they come back," Droznin said. "They come back on Sunday because, like I like to say, 'Once bitten by the Nutcracker bug, you're infected forever.' You look forward to the next season."
This year's cast also features seven graduating seniors, including Juliane Carpio, Emma Thomas and Kelan Halloran. That makes this year's performances special, Droznin said.
"We'll have to say goodbye to some of them that have been with us for a very long time, and there's some that have this on their bucket list and they're doing it for the first time," she said.
Walker said "The Nutcracker" is one of his favorite shows to do because it's an opportunity to collaborate with different studios and be part of a longstanding tradition for people in the community, he said.
"It really is a wonderful experience to be involved with something that might spark the interest of someone for live theater, which is always a good thing for us performers," Walker said.
Droznin often hears stories of several generations of families coming to the Peabody for the ballet — of people whose mothers used to be in the show, or whose grandmothers used to take them as kids, and now they're doing the same.
One story in particular comes to her mind — a photo of a dancer who took a photo with Clara during a Sugar Plum tea several years ago. Three years after that photo was taken, that dancer was assigned the same costume Clara was wearing in the photo for her role in "The Nutcracker" as a party girl.
"To them, that was so special," Droznin said. "I think it's stories like that you hear that make it such a transformative experience in the lives of the community. It's the Nutcracker magic. Truly, it's a Nutcracker bug."
