SALEM, N.H. — Professional dancer Sabi Varga stands in the mirrored Salem studio and does two simple leg movements that demonstrate a larger truth about ballet.
He raises his right leg, positioned forward, to the side. Anatomy, the way our joints are built, limits his lift to only knee height.
“Look what happens when I turn my leg out and I lift it,” he says, his eyes widening.
His leg rises higher and higher, easily topping shoulder height.
“Now, when you are a child, this is an incredible discovery about yourself — that you are able to do more things than you thought you could,” says Varga, originally from Hungary.
Discovery and wonder, as well as the discipline, expression, grace, confidence and kinship that ballet develops, will soon take the stage with 50 dancers in the Methuen Ballet Ensemble, a troupe organized by and including dancers from Voter’s School of Dance.
The dancers and Sabi, as Cavalier, and another professional dancer, Emily Entingh, as Sugar Plum Fairy, will perform “The Nutcracker” Nov. 25 at noon and 4 p.m. on the Dana Center stage at St. Anselm College in Manchester, N.H.
For more than a century the holiday classic by Russian composer Pyotr Tchaikovsky has danced into the world’s collective cultural consciousness through transporting music, storytelling movements and enchanting sets.
Closer to home it forms core memories for local dancers.
“The Nutcracker” is being choreographed and directed by Vanessa Voter, of the Voter’s School, here in Salem and previously in Methuen — her mom, Pam, started the school in her home in 1951.
For four decades Voter’s has presented “The Nutcracker.”
Generations of rouge-cheeked Claras have cradled nutcrackers; sprightly Polichinelles have bounded from under Mother Ginger; bunnies have hopped.
They have performed at Tenney Middle School in Methuen, the auditorium at the former Bradford College in Haverhill, Amesbury High School, the Firehouse Center for the Arts in Newburyport and now the Dana Center.
Some of the Methuen, North Andover, Haverhill and other moms in this year’s ensemble performed it as little girls; and now some of their children are dancing in it with them.
The Party-goers, Candy Flowers and Snowflakes include dads and daughters and mothers and sons and daughters from Windham, Hampstead and Sandown
Amy Morganthal, 47, of North Andover, danced in her first Voter’s “Nutcracker” 42 years ago. Today, she is a married mom with five children and works as a dental hygienist.
“Something I have loved watching is the families that have gotten involved,” Morganthal says.
Over time, more fathers have joined the cast, volunteering for walk-on roles.
“The cast changes, but it is the same excitement, a buzz about going onstage,” says Morganthal, who this year plays Drosselmeyer and Candy Flower.
Lauren Otto, 39, who grew up in Methuen and North Andover, and lives in Newburyport, plays a Snowflake, Marzipan Shepherdess and a Candy Flower this year.
Otto is a lawyer, wife, and mother, and she too has danced in the Voter’s School’s “Nutcracker” since childhood.
“The Nutcracker” is wildly popular here and everywhere. Major ballet companies generate almost half their annual receipts from the production. It’s a holiday tradition, easy to understand and has a fairy tale and coming-of-age story to it, says Otto.
She remembers moments from her first years in the production. Things like putting makeup on and getting to wear false eyelashes for the first time.
“I got my ears pierced so I could wear rhinestone earrings when I was 10 on the stage,” she says.
A few years ago, when she took home props to repaint, they included a wooden harp. “I remember it was the same wooden harp I had carried 30 years ago,” she says.
Jennifer Korzeb, 43, of Methuen, is another veteran Voter’s dancer. She’s a Haverhill dentist who plays a Snowflake and Dew Drop Fairy.
“The Nutcracker” continues to excite its youngest dancers, says Korzeb, who works with them. Milestones for children include the rehearsal when they finally get to dance onstage with their friends and wear costumes.
Korzeb’s mom, Teresa Korzeb, has helped make countless “Nutcracker” costumes.
Jessica Woloszyn, a Windham High School student, will dance as a Snowflake, Arabian Coffee and a Candy Flower. She is only 16 but has been dancing in “The Nutcracker” since she was 5 and played her first role, a bunny.
Even at that young age she understood what was going on in the story. She knew that Clara, by the end, waking with the nutcracker, realized it was all a dream, and how the Land of Sweets in the second act was a reward for bravery.
Sarah Jane Kivlehan of Methuen plays Clara, and Fabian Montanez of Methuen, the Nutcracker.
Ashley Shaheen, 33, of Haverhill, Vanessa Voter’s daughter, is the children’s director. She will also dance — as a Snowflake, Spanish Chocolate and a Candy Flower.
Shaheen first danced in early childhood. When she was in seventh grade, two professional dancers in the production stayed at her house, and she talked with them at length about dance.
One of the dancers gave her a gift, Sugar Plum Fairy nail polish. She saved the bottle for years.
The set and effects include a giant growing Christmas tree, snowfall and an enveloping mist.
The dancers will tell the timeless tale of a broken toy that comes to life in a girl’s sleepy reverie beneath a Christmas tree.
The dancers will learn about themselves along the way and, perhaps, discover through ballet that they can do more than they they thought they could do.
Tickets are $35 for purchase at tickets.anselm.edu.
For more information visit MethuenBalletEnsemble.com
Editor’s note: This is the ninth in a series about diverse dance styles in the Merrimack Valley.