Teacher and Pupil Dance Same Role in Separate Nutcracker Shows

Two women from Banning dancing the same featured role in "The Nutcracker" ballet might seem like a longshot, but it's happening this week.

Banning's best-known ballerina, Julia Olsen-Rodriguez, 25, danced the Sugar Plum Fairy role in California Riverside Ballet's professional production of "The Nutcracker." 

Sarai Bates, 14, is dancing the same role Wednesday and Thursday evening for a production of "The Nutcracker" by Beaumont's Dance Spectrum studio.

When she isn't studying at Dance Spectrum, Bates takes classes from Olsen-Rodriguez, who directs San Gorgonio Ballet and would like to see Bates pursue the grueling discipline of ballet.

"Ballet is her favorite," said Bates' mom Amber.

"She's got talent," Olsen-Rodriguez said of Bates.

As does Olsen-Rodriguez, a product of the prestigious Joffrey Ballet School who danced both the Sugar Plum Fairy and the Snow Queen to five sold-out audiences in Riverside's renovated Fox Performing Arts Center, a 1,600-seater.  A reviewer called her dancing in "The Waltz of the Snowflakes" the ballet's most notable number.

California Riverside Ballet's director Mario Nugara, a product of the equally prestigious School of the American Ballet and a former dancer with the New York City Ballet, paid her the ultimate compliment; he wants her to dance for him again.

"Dancing the Sugar Plum Fairy was awesome," said Olsen-Rodriguez.  "The director brought in Stephanie Saland, who had danced for (famous choreographers) George Balanchine and Jerome Robbins.  She coached me, and it was just wonderful to work with someone of her caliber.  Another of the coaches was Zippora Karz, who danced with New York City Ballet;  she also represents the Balanchine Trust as a repetiteur, ensuring that companies do his works properly."

The Riverside "Nutcracker" also was high-tech.  Production manager Ed Lippmann used his film industry connections to arrange Pixar video projection backdrops for the scenery.

The technology at Dance Spectrum's version of "The Nutcracker" will probably be a bit lower, and so will the ticket prices — $10 advance and $12 at the door of The Blackstone Theater on the campus of Redlands East Valley High School, 31000 East Colton Ave. in Redlands.

Bates seemed quite relaxed about her chance to dance the famous Sugar Plum Fairy role.

"It's not that hard," she said with invincible youthful courage.  "You never stop moving and it gets faster and faster; sometimes it's hard to catch your breath.  There are lots of turns and jumps.  But I love performing; I love dancing."

Sarai — "It's pronounced Sa-Rye, but everybody seems to call me Sara"—Bates has been on the stage since before she was three, according to Amber.  She said that in addition to ballet, her daughter loves to dance in musical theater.

Not surprisingly, Sarai's attention has been drawn to New York City, the capital of US dance.

"I'd like to go to school there," she said, "so I could dance and teach others to dance."

In some disciplines that might be dreaming—but in ballet, Bates is at an age where she needs to knuckle down, according to Olsen-Rodriguez, who worries about her sometimes student.

"Fourteen is getting up there—in ballet years," she added with a chuckle.  "By 12, they know what they want and they're doing it."

That was the path Olsen-Rodriguez followed at that age, and it led to New York City, the Joffrey school (now in Chicago) and dancing at the Fox in Riverside.

"I don't want to put too much pressure on her," said Olsen-Rodriguez.  "It's up to her and her family to decide.  I hope she is enjoying it, and I think she is. 

"She has the talent, but you can't rely only on what God gives you, or you'll be skimming the surface, not a real dancer," she said.  "The training side has all its own experiences, ups and downs, even before you get into the professional side of it."

And then there is the huge hurdle of what happens when a young ballerina discovers boys.

"That's really the big one," said Olsen-Rodriguez's mom Elizabeth.  "If they get past that, they're usually okay."