November 19, 2025
By Wendy Carlson
Photographs by Wendy Carlson
In the days leading up to opening night of The Nutcracker, the music of Tchaikovsky flows out of the third-floor studio at the Nutmeg Ballet Conservancy in Torrington during dress rehearsals. It’s time to make costume adjustments, finesse dancer movements, and remind performers to smile at appropriate times. This is not an easy feat when you have perfected the same adagio, allegro, arabesque, or any of the many combinations thereof for the umpteenth time. Or, imagine you are one of the little angels who lost her front tooth before opening night, and Nutmeg artistic director and executive director Victoria Mazzarelli is coaxing you to smile.
“Hold your candle up, and smile,” Mazzarelli gently cajoles a tight-lipped diminutive angel. “Oh, I see you’ve lost your front tooth,” she says, adding, “Maybe the Sugar Plum Fairy will grow you a new one.”
So it goes. To the audience, this much-loved classic holiday performance appears as if by magic on the Warner Theater stage in Torrington and at the Bushnell in Hartford. The work of fairy dust? Hardly.
“The boys need elastic for their tights, they’re falling down,” Mazzarelli says, turning to an assistant who is taking copious notes. Mazzarelli has been directing The Nutcracker since 2006. She even performed the role of the Sugar Plum Fairy in 2003. Production manager and faculty member Tim Melady has been with Nutmeg for 15 years, and in 2003 performed with Mazzarelli as soloists in “Arabian Coffee” in Act 2, which she choreographed. This year marks 16 years that Thomas Evertz, Mazerelli’s husband, has played the role of Herr Drosselmeyer.
Along with the other conservancy instructors, they are the main cylinders of the robust engine that keeps the annual performance running smoothly. Then, there are the “support Moms,” who act as stage hands, work as seamstresses, and make sure the youngest to the oldest ballerinas remain calm and composed backstage.
“It’s like a family here,” says Lauren Werkhoven, who as a young girl performed in The Nutcracker and whose two daughters, Eloise, 7, and Alexis,13, have followed in her footsteps. Between classes and rehearsals, it’s a huge time commitment for the students––and their parents.
As for the odd onstage glitches, they often go unseen. One year, an eyeball popped out of one of the huge mouse head costumes, and rolled across the stage. (The eyeballs are actually Christmas ornaments.) “I don’t think the audience even noticed,” says Adriana Hoxie. She is one of a half-dozen seamstresses who work feverishly backstage during performances to keep the intricate costumes–some of which are 30 years old–fitted to each dancer.
After the final performance, those costumes are carefully stored away until next fall, when auditions are held and the music of Tchaikovsky once again fills the studio.
“It’s exhausting,” says Mazzarelli, “but I wouldn’t change a thing. Our students, faculty, and families pour their hearts into every rehearsal, costume fitting, and late-night practice. The true spirit of the season shines in the shared effort.”
Find performance information at www.nutmegconservatory.org/nutcracker
