'Chaos' en pointe

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Two weeks away, and the stage is set, quite literally, for Christmas. There's a giant Christmas tree, gifts, holiday decorations and a house full of loving family and friends. The icing on the Christmas cake? Tremendous dancing and a score by none other than Tchaikovsky.

Yes, we're talking about the Washington Ballet's "The Nutcracker," which is in full swing at the Warner Theatre, complete with ballerinas doing near-impossible pirouettes, special effects a la canon fire, 19th-century Americana Christmas decor and a cast of hundreds of amateur dancers ages 6 through 19 doing everything from plies to high marches.

It's picture-perfect.

But the perfection, including the "absolutely beautiful, choreographed chaos" that is the opening party scene, didn't happen overnight, says Donna Glover, children's coordinator with the Washington Ballet.

Without hours upon hours of hard work by the young dancers with the help of instructors and ballet Artistic Director Septime Webre, it could have been just "chaos," and probably not in a good or gorgeous way.

"The commitment from the children and their parents is huge," Ms. Glover says. "Once the children audition in October, their weekends are gone."

The young amateur dancers -- who during the performance dance alongside 28 professional dancers from the Washington Ballet -- have devoted up to 30 hours a week to rehearsals, many of them giving up other activities, birthday parties and chances just to hang out with friends.

The strange thing is that these young Claras, Fritzes, frontier girls and little fishermen -- all characters in the story about an adolescent girl, Clara, who has a fantastical dream on Christmas Eve about a mouse king, a nutcracker, a snow queen and a sugarplum fairy -- don't seem to mind. On the contrary.

"It's really magical," says Ariella Steinhorn, 13, one of three Claras. (There are several casts.) "My favorite is my dance with the Nutcracker. I get a chance to dance and act at the same time, and I love combining the two."

Ariella, who does her whole performance en pointe (in those hard-toed ballet shoes, which ballerinas harden further by adding glue), has devoted 20 to 30 hours a week in the past two months to rehearsals. It doesn't get tiring, boring?