All over the world there are hundreds of versions and performances of The Nutcracker composed by world famous, Pyotr Ilyich Tchaikovsky. 

Ballet Quad Cities, in Rock Island, Illinois, is a professional ballet company that puts on The Nutcracker every year in Cedar Rapids and Davenport. Cedar Rapids has the luxury of The Nutcracker coming downtown to the Paramount    Theatre to perform for the residents of Cedar Rapids. 

Ballet Quad Cities invites local studios such as The Dancer’s EDGE and The Pointe School of Dance to come and dance as angels in their performance of The Nutcracker. This year, they have invited only The Pointe School of Dance dancers to be angels in the production. 

Some students from Xavier High School participated in it when they were younger and continue to perform in it now as they are older. 

“The dancers from our local studios have a blast getting to dance with the professionals,” senior, Taylor Coester said. 

Sitting behind stage watching professional dancers perform is a very unique experience that only some have the opportunity to do. 

“It was really fun to dance and be there with all my dance friends,” junior, Kaitlin Hotchkiss said. 

Both Coester and Hotchkiss dance at The Dancers EDGE in Cedar Rapids, and they both agreed that dancing in a professional production of The Nutcracker was a very memorable experience. 

“I remember hanging out in the dressing room waiting to be called down for our dance as angels and we were playing with our candles that they had given us,” Coester said. 

The dancers spend weeks preparing for their big performance.

Overall, the dancers from Cedar Rapids’ local studios have a great experience getting to perform in front of their friends, family and Cedar Rapids residents alongside professional dancers.  

Along with Ballet Quad Cities, Orchestra Iowa plays all the music during the show. 

The performances will be December 7, 2019 at 2:30 p.m. and at 7:30 -p.m. Tickets     can be found on The Ballet Quad Cities website and the Paramount website as well.