On the big stage

Two hours before the "Great Russian Nutcracker" at the Southeast Missouri State University River Campus, while the dancers of the Moscow Ballet were presumably preparing for the show, the show's local stars were already dancing.

"This is what it is," said Hannah Sanders, artistic director of the Cape Girardeau location of the Dance Center, with only a hint of exasperation as she surveyed the roomful of aspiring ballerinas. "Always dancing. They're a different breed. Dancing even while they're waiting to dance."

There were only 30 this year, Sanders said. But the youngest was 5 years old and the oldest 14, so between the makeup-applying, idle anime cartooning and occasional shrieking, the energy was still plenty to contend with.

Auditions had been in September, conducted by a member of the professional ballet, and since then all the girls had learned their points, positions and cues. The real challenge would be getting everyone to focus when necessary. Sanders wasn't worried.

"It's a really proud moment to see them up there with professionals," she said. "To see them dance with the best of the best, it's a magical moment for me, so I can only imagine what it's like for them."

Jaya Gremmels, left, smiles at Jordan David while waiting backstage before performing with the Moscow Ballet .

For one young dancer, 10-year-old Linden Holmes, it was an opportunity to do what she loves best. "I love ballet. It's awesome because you get to see the [professional] dancers go on point," she said. "I'm hoping to get point shoes for Christmas."

She said the hardest part of performing with professionals was knowing how large the crowd would be.

"But I never get nervous," she insisted, even though she admitted she had "a tendency to wobble."

Even with a wobble here or there, she said the extravagant costumes make the whole thing a blast.

"I play a Spain-ish girl with a wonky hat!" she said.

Performers portraying snowflakes dance together before taking stage with the Moscow Ballet.

She left to join a group of girls who had been scouring the floor tiles for insects to rescue.

For parents, too, the performance was something of a dream come true.

"It's kind of amazing," said Randi Whitworth, who was helping chaperone and whose daughter, Kennedy Berkowitz, was performing that night.

"You get to see all the work she's put into it."

It would be 9-year-old Berkowitz's second time performing with the Moscow troupe.

"Last year, she didn't know what to expect," Whitworth said. "But as soon as it was over, she was looking forward to next year."

And she was certain that by the time the performance was over, her daughter would be focused again on the year to come's "Nutcracker" show.

As the show drew nearer, the girls were helped into costume, some as snowflakes, some mice, others 'party children,' and group by group, disappeared backstage to perform.

And group by group they returned, often with just as much energy as they'd left with.

One snowflake, Addie Smith-Fulia, 6, returned in particularly high spirits. Asked how the performance had gone, she embraced a particular sort of 6-year-old humility.

"It was a small part," she said, still dancing hand-in-hand with other snowflakes. "It was easy. Until the end. We have to do a curve shape so I have to like literally make a curve shape."

But she and her colleagues had done what they'd come to do.

And to fellow dancer Jaya Gremmels, 10, when the big stage is yours and the bright lights are on, everything else melts away.

"When you're doing your dance and you're having fun, it's not scary at all," she said.