Backstage at the Kirkwood Performing Arts Center, the air hums with a particular kind of quiet before the storm. Hairpins click into place. Pointe shoes are laced tight. Somewhere down the hall, a bulletin board fills with handwritten notes of encouragement. In a few hours, the house lights will dim, Tchaikovsky's score will swell, and sixty local dancers will step into a story that has opened Kirkwood's holiday season for twenty-two years running.
This is The Dance Center's Nutcracker.
What began as a small production has grown into something the whole community claims as its own: sold-out houses, four performances, and a cast built almost entirely from local students. For Kathy Massot, owner of Dance Center of Kirkwood, directing the Nutcracker is more than a recital; it's a labor of love rooted in mentorship, artistry, and gratitude.
Talent That Grows Up Here
This season's cast features roughly 60 dancers, from sixth-graders to graduating seniors, alongside faculty members who step into character roles like the mothers in Act I. Two St. Louis-area professionals portray the Sugar Plum Fairy and her Cavalier, while dancers from Kirkwood, Webster, and surrounding towns fill every other role.
The polished final performance looks effortless, but the journey begins long before autumn's first chill. Preparation starts in July, with rigorous full-day rehearsals every Sunday through summer and fall. During Thanksgiving week, when school doors close, the theater becomes a home away from home. Dancers spend hours running cues, adjusting backdrops, and perfecting lighting transitions, pausing only on Thanksgiving Day to celebrate with family.
Backstage, camaraderie defines the atmosphere. Older leads in variations like the "Candy Cane" step up as mentors, offering sweet treats and handwritten notes to the younger corps de ballet dancing behind them. Between shows on double-show days, backstage dance-offs and friendly contests let dancers blow off steam before the evening curtain.
The Beauty of Live Theatre
Live theater brings its own unscripted energy. Kathy often passes along wisdom from her own mentor: "Keep your wits about you." Before every performance, she reminds her dancers that each show brings a fresh audience deserving of their absolute focus and heart.
That advice was put to the test when a missing prop nearly derailed a crucial scene, until a quick-thinking student playing a maid dashed backstage, found it, and saved the moment without missing a beat. "Things happen," Kathy laughs. "But we just keep rolling."
"We practice 100 times to make one good show," she explains. "We go in doing our absolute best, and if something doesn't turn out the way we want, we accept it and say, 'I did my best, I'm proud of myself, and I can't control all the little things.' That's live theater."
For Kathy, that unpredictability is exactly what makes it worthwhile. In a world of screens, edits, and digital polish, there's something irreplaceable about watching a performance unfold live. "It's raw. It's organic," she says. "You're part of something that's happening in real time."
The spectacle itself is carefully crafted to enchant audiences from age three to one hundred. It features more than 200 vibrant costumes, dramatic lighting, hand-painted backdrops, floating fog, a stage-side sled, falling snow, and confetti cannons. The result leaves young viewers spellbound.
More Than a Performance
Beyond four mainstage performances at KPAC, the production spreads cheer across the region. Dancers take excerpted variations to area nursing homes, visiting with residents after they perform. They also carry the magic to a free annual community showcase at the Saint Louis Art Museum, a tradition now 15 years strong.
Take Your Seat
What Kathy has built isn't just a show. It's a rite of passage for young dancers and a holiday touchstone for families who return year after year to watch the season begin the same beautiful way. As she puts it: "We're so grateful. We're here to serve people, to create a wonderful performance for them."
This Thanksgiving weekend, KPAC's stage will fill once more with snow, fog, and the swell of a century-old score. As it has for twenty-two years, the music will be carried by the hands and hearts of Kirkwood's own. So settle into your seat, watch the snow fall, and let the magic of live theatre begin.
For ticket information, visit dancecenterkirkwood.com/nutcracker-ballet
"What began as a small production has grown into something the whole community claims as its own.."
"It's raw. It's organic. You're part of something that's happening in real time."