Sharing the fun with Mouse King, the Chinese Dragon, the Russian Bear and the Mother Ginger children, 11-year-old Chester resident and dancer, Keri Burke, will have a holiday season she will never forget. Burke will be performing with the cast of the Richmond Ballet in Artistic Director Stoner Winslett’s “The Nutcracker.” She is dancing as one of the Mother Ginger children and is in one of the three casts that will perform during the holiday season. She is not sure what dates her performances will take place as of press time, but is preparing for all and is excited to just have the opportunity to dance in a professional production.
The holiday tradition returns with 13 performances in the grand Carpenter Center opening on December 11.
“I feel like a real dancer,” she said. “It has been really fun and it’s exciting being in a professional show.”
Keri said trying out for a part in “The Nutcracker” was a two-hour process and a little nerve-racking. “The hardest part was just getting over the nausea and just dance,” she said. Getting a call back was extra special. “I was really excited that I made it. Two hundred people auditioned and only 125 made it. I was really happy.”
Burke is in her tenth year of dance lessons. She enrolled in dancing classes just short of her second birthday at the Dance Xplosion studio in Chester.
Her parents, Leigh and Billy Burke saw her interest and supported her by turning a spare bedroom in their home into a dance studio. She has also jumped on the opportunity over the last couple of years to enroll in workshops that would help build her skills. She also traveled to North Carolina and New York for day sessions and Connecticut for a two-week camp over the summer. Burke enrolled in the School of Richmond Ballet this September. Attending the school opened the door of opportunity for auditioning for “The Nutcracker.”
Burke attends classes twice a week for ballet and rehersals for “The Nutcracker” on Saturdays and Sundays. The sixth-grade student keeps up with her studies and continues to be on the honor roll at Carver Middle School. “We are very excited and very proud of her,” Mom said. “She works very hard.”
Burke will be performing in Act II of “The Nutcracker” and will probably be experiencing “butterflies” with the rest of her cast mates when the current rises and the opening notes of Tchaikovsky’s famous overture opens the story in the candlelit drawing room of the Silberhaus family, buzzing with the celebration of Christmas.
Along with every child who attends the production of “The Nutcracker,” Burke will always have special memories for this holiday season and the story of the family’s young daughter, Clara, Dr. Drosselmeyer, the mysterious toymaker, and his handsome nephew who arrives with a special gift – a wooden nutcracker doll – that captures the Clara’s imagination.
With each show that Burke performs in, she will follow the magic and fantastic events that fill Clara’s dreams and imagine that one day in the future her dream may come true – dancing in the roll of Clara.
The Nutcracker is performed in the Carpenter Theatre at Richmond CenterStage and lasts approximately two hours. Tickets may be purchased on the Richmond Ballet’s website at richmondballet.com
