Waltzing With The Stars
You probably know a kid that doesn’t quite fit the norm. A kid who can’t find their place in the world.
That’s part of the premise behind Dance Conservatory Seattle’s new Nutcracker, and according to its creator Joshua Grant, it was inspired by his own boyhood.
Grant and his partner and, DCS co-director Chrissy Montoya, are both dancers. Joshua was a soloist at Pacific Northwest Ballet, contemplating the end of his career; Chrissy had most recently left a leadership position with Spectrum Dance Theater’s school. The pandemic pushed them (and so many other performing artists) to expedite changes to their career paths.
Neither fits the physical ballet stereotype set by smoldering, troubled Slavic dancers like Sergei Polunin or, from an earlier era, Rudolf Nureyev. Josh is very tall and Chrissy short and solid. And they both were interested in dancing in pointe shoes. But they defied the challenges that faced them and built careers, and they both wanted to create a studio where other people, really everybody, could pursue their own dance dreams. Specifically, they wanted to create a dance community for people of all genders and gender expressions, as well as all ages, shapes and races.
When they decided to pursue this route during the pandemic, they began by offering classes for adults. Early in the pandemic, they signed a lease on a large industrial building in Seattle’s South Park neighborhood, an area with a large Latin-x population that felt familiar to Chrissy, an Arizona native. Among their many dreams was to create a dance center where adults and kids could take classes, and ultimately, perform. Once schools and theaters reopened, DCS began to pursue that ambitious agenda in earnest, including a roster of guest artists from Seattle’s rich dance community.
Josh’s autobiographically-inspired Nutcracker debuted on December 14, 2024, to a packed house of parents, siblings and other friends of both DCS and the dancers. Almost every community dance school produces a holiday pageant of some type; many are versions of the Nutcracker. But I don’t know if there are any others that feature Drosselmeyer’s nephew as the protagonist, who leads his friends not to the Land of Sweets but on a search for a flotilla of shining stars rather than waltzing flowers. It’s replete with swimming salmon, a forest of evergreen trees and tiny, yellow-clad children who just might be interpreted as slugs. In short, very Pacific Northwest.
This year, 2024, DCS premiered its Nutcracker in its South Park studios. Next year they hope to produce it in a theater that can accommodate the audiences they had to turn away.
Grant and Montoya took a risk opening a dance school during the pandemic, especially one as non-traditional as theirs. It’s a joy to witness their success, to learn that the entire run had sold out. If I had any kinesthetic inclination whatsoever, I could envision myself waltzing along with my elder peers as one of the shining stars. You really get the sense that we CAN follow our dreams.
I left the show with that warm sense of a community embracing its people, so happy for its success. If you want a glam, highly polished ballet, this may not be for you. But if you want heartfelt joy, find your way to South Park. And if you ever want to watch someone who was born to perform, look no further than Chrissy Montoya, whose purple wig and beflowered skirt stole the show for me. Hope to see you all again next year!