Studio West Dance Theatre creates ‘Boundless’ film in lieu of the ‘Nutcracker’

Although COVID-19 forced the cancellation of Studio West Dance Theatre’s “Nutcracker,” the Sugar Plum Fairy does dance in “Boundless,” the company’s new film.

The film, screening Thursday, Dec. 10, at the Skyline Drive-In Theater in Shelton, mixes montages of solos from Tchaikovsky’s classic with eight group dances performed — in keeping with the times — by masked dancers.

“It is strange having the dancers in masks, but it’s what we’re doing now,” said Stephanie Wood-Ennett, Studio West’s co-director. “The more I was in the theater, the more it felt normal. It was like, ‘Oh, their masks match their costumes. Look at that.’

“For the solos, because we were 20-plus feet away from the dancers, we allowed them not to wear masks,” she added. “We could see their faces just glowing and shining. That was really special.”

The new dances, choreographed by Studio West staff to maintain physical distancing, include hip-hop and contemporary as well as ballet pieces and feature about 60 dancers ages 14 to 19.

But it’s the Nutcracker dances — solos for the Sugar Plum Fairy and the Arabian dancer from the Land of the Sweets — that meant the most to the half-dozen high-school seniors who won’t get that final full production before they graduate.

“It’s the end of a chapter for us,” said Kayla Jones, 17 and a senior at Olympia High School and in Running Start at South Puget Sound Community College. “The day we recorded our ‘Nutcracker’ solos was a really hard day, but also a reminder for me of why I love to dance.”

Kayla has been doing ballet since age 4 and dancing in the Nutcracker since she was in fifth grade. She plans to minor in dance in college, so she might dance it again someday, but not with Studio West.

The inability to perform over the past nine months has been challenging, she told The Olympian. “Being in the theater and performing is the place where I feel the most at home and the most joyful and the most like myself,” she said. “Not having closure on this chapter has been really hard.”

“Our seniors are the ones who are really losing out,” Wood-Ennett said. “They did not want to leave the theater at the end of the filming.

“They just sat there crying, because that was it for them,” she said. “That was their Nutcracker. It was better than nothing.”

It’s been nearly 30 years since Wood-Ennett has had a holiday season without either dancing in or directing the Nutcracker — and she’s doing just fine.

“It seems like everybody feels like they’ve had an arm cut off,” she said. “I’m like, ‘Hey, we’re going to be OK.’ I don’t want to say I’m welcoming the break from Nutcracker, because there are moments when I truly do miss it. But it will come back.”

While making a film was probably more work than producing the annual holiday ballet, she said, it was exciting to work with professional videographer Aaron Zeigler, who sometimes got on stage with the dancers to film and used a drone for some scenes.

Most of the filming happened in mid-November at SPSCC’s Minnaert Center for the Arts, where the dance company does all of its performances.

“We were so lucky,” Wood-Ennett said. “We got in the theater the weekend before the shutdown and filmed it just in the nick of time. It was meant to be.”

‘Boundless’

• What: In lieu of its usual “Nutcracker,” Studio West Dance Theatre has made a film of eight new dances — including ballet, contemporary and hip-hop — and a performance of “Nutcracker Variations,” with six senior dancers performing parts of Tchaikovsky’s classic.
• When: 7 p.m. Thursday, Dec. 10
• Where: Skyline Drive-In Theater, 182 SE Brewer Road, Shelton
• Tickets: $20 per car
• More information: http://studiowestdancetheatre.com
• Digital copy: Digital copies of the film are available on flash drives for $27.

This story was originally published December 4, 2020 at 5:45 AM.