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<p>Sixteen-year-old Bella Buckland, from Larksville, obligingly filled in the blank.</p><p>Dancing with members of the Moscow Ballet, which Buckland expects to do on Tuesday as the traveling troupe presents &#8220;The Great Russian Nutcracker&#8221; at the F.M. Kirby Center, will be as exciting as &#8230;.</p><p>&#8220;Christmas morning!&#8221; Buckland said.</p><p>If you look at it that way, Christmas will come early &#8212; on Dec. 17 &#8212; for ballet fans in the audience and local dance students in the cast.</p><p>Tuesday evening&#8217;s show promises to feature spectacle after spectacle, including a Dove of Peace, which involves two dancers &#8212; each wearing one wing &#8212; who move as one and create a 20-foot wingspan.</p><p>Russian folk legends Father Christmas/Ded Moroz and Snow Maiden/Snegurochka are part of the pageantry, along with life-size Matrusha Dolls and 10-feet tall silk puppets.</p><p>And, of course, 93 young people, representing several area dance studios, also will take part in the show, dancing alongside the touring professionals.</p><p>The young people fill roles such as snowflakes and snow maidens, mice and party guests, and perform &#8220;variations&#8221; that represent the dance styles of several different countries.</p><p>&#8220;Last year I was in the &#8216;older Chinese&#8217; variation and we were more bubbly and smiley,&#8221; said Eliana Pileggi, 13, of Kingston. &#8220;This year I&#8217;m in the &#8216;older Spanish&#8217; variation. &#8216;Spanish&#8217; has more attitude and sass.&#8221;</p><p>&#8220;I&#8217;m in the &#8216;older Russian&#8217; variation,&#8221; said Cades Linder, 15, of Dallas, remembering how Olga Pasternak, the audition mistress who taught her that dance in October, &#8220;said you have to really animate yourself because it&#8217;s an iconic dance. You have to really smile. And there&#8217;s a lot of precision about where your hands go and where you&#8217;re looking when you&#8217;re doing things.&#8221;</p><p>Speaking of precision, press photos from the show indicate the professional dancers who perform the &#8220;Russian variation&#8221; are able to swing their legs out to the side and precisely place a foot somewhere above their ears.</p><p>When a reporter asked how close Linder comes to a similar feat with her foot, the local girl started giggling.</p><p>&#8220;It&#8217;s very hard to do and I&#8217;m trying to get it there,&#8221; she said, admitting she can kick her own toes &#8220;up to my shoulder, I would say.&#8221;</p><p>Grace Nicolai, 15, of Dallas, who was chosen at this year&#8217;s audition to dance in the &#8220;older Spanish&#8221; variation, explained that the &#8220;older&#8221; variations are more complex than the &#8220;younger&#8221; variations, which are typically performed by younger, less experienced dancers.</p><p>&#8220;When we&#8217;re in the &#8216;older variation&#8217; we do it on pointe and it&#8217;s a lot more complicated,&#8221; she said.</p><p>Several of the teen-age dancers said they have been taking part in the Great Russian Nutcracker for four to six years now, and started with such parts as snowflakes, mice and young guests in the party scene.</p><p>Linder really enjoyed portraying one of the party guests, because it afforded a chance for lots of acting.</p><p>&#8220;They&#8217;re guests at a party, and they react to the uncle who does a puppet show and to their parents, who give them presents,&#8221; she said. &#8220;They dance together and they laugh and talk.&#8221;</p><p>The costume was especially memorable, too, Linder said.</p><p>&#8220;I got to be a girl (some girls are cast as boys) and I got to wear a dress that was hand sewn and sparkly and really pretty.&#8221;</p><p>Elisabeth Harris from the Joan Harris Centre for the Gifted and Talented in Luzerne has been working for the past several weeks with the local dancers who have come from several dance studios across the region to take part in the show.</p><p>Explaining that she considers the group &#8220;an all-star team,&#8221; Harris compared it to a sport in which &#8220;the players come from across the region and lend their talents to create a cohesive unit that is even greater than the sum of its parts. Each year, the Great Russian Nutcracker provides that same opportunity for our area dancers.&#8221;</p><p><ins>IF YOU GO</ins></p><p><ins>What: The Great Russian Nutcracker</ins></p><p><ins>Who: Presented by the Moscow Ballet, joined onstage by local dance students</ins></p><p><ins>When: 7 p.m. Dec. 17, with doors opening at 5:30 p.m.</ins></p><p><ins>Where: F.M. Kirby Center, 71 Public Square, Wilkes-Barre, with doors opening at 5:30 p.m.</ins></p><p><ins>Tickets: start at $29, plus fees.</ins></p><style>
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<div class="neCaption">Toy soldiers leap through the air with great precision during Act I of &#8216;The Great Russian Nutcracker.&#8217; </div></div><div class="metaInfo"><photo0>https://www.timesleader.com/wp-content/uploads/2019/12/web1_Moscow-Ballet-s-Great-Russian-Nutcracker-Soldiers-vs-Mice-Battle-2.jpg</photo0><caption0>Toy soldiers leap through the air with great precision during Act I of &#8216;The Great Russian Nutcracker.&#8217; </caption0><photoCredit0></photoCredit0></div><div class="neFile"><img class="neImage" src="https://www.timesleader.com/wp-content/uploads/2019/12/web1_Moscow-Ballet-s-Great-Russian-Nutcracker-and-the-Russian-Variation-1-2.jpg">
<div class="neCaption">The professional dancers who perform the &#8216;Russian&#8217; variation have the ability to kick amazingly high. </div></div><div class="metaInfo"><photo1>https://www.timesleader.com/wp-content/uploads/2019/12/web1_Moscow-Ballet-s-Great-Russian-Nutcracker-and-the-Russian-Variation-1-2.jpg</photo1><caption1>The professional dancers who perform the &#8216;Russian&#8217; variation have the ability to kick amazingly high. </caption1><photoCredit1></photoCredit1></div><div class="neFile"><img class="neImage" src="https://www.timesleader.com/wp-content/uploads/2019/12/web1_moscow.snow_-2.jpg">
<div class="neCaption">The snow scene presents a wintry picture, and local dance students will represent snowflakes and snow maidens when &#8216;The Great Russian Nutcracker&#8217; comes to the F.M. Kirby Center on Tuesday. </div></div><div class="metaInfo"><photo2>https://www.timesleader.com/wp-content/uploads/2019/12/web1_moscow.snow_-2.jpg</photo2><caption2>The snow scene presents a wintry picture, and local dance students will represent snowflakes and snow maidens when &#8216;The Great Russian Nutcracker&#8217; comes to the F.M. Kirby Center on Tuesday. </caption2><photoCredit2></photoCredit2></div><div class="neFile"><img class="neImage" src="https://www.timesleader.com/wp-content/uploads/2019/12/web1_moscow.dove_-2.jpg">
<div class="neCaption">Two dancers, each wearing one wing, work together to form a Dove of Peace in a scene that is exclusive to the Moscow Ballet&#8217;s &#8216;Great Russian Nutcracker.&#8217; </div></div><div class="metaInfo"><photo3>https://www.timesleader.com/wp-content/uploads/2019/12/web1_moscow.dove_-2.jpg</photo3><caption3>Two dancers, each wearing one wing, work together to form a Dove of Peace in a scene that is exclusive to the Moscow Ballet&#8217;s &#8216;Great Russian Nutcracker.&#8217; </caption3><photoCredit3></photoCredit3></div><div class="neFile"><img class="neImage" src="https://www.timesleader.com/wp-content/uploads/2019/12/web1_moscow.big_.doll_-2.jpg">
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<div class="metaInfo"><subheadMeta>93 area dance students to join Moscow Ballet in &#8216;Great Russian Nutcracker&#8217;</subheadMeta></div><div class="metaInfo"><bylineMeta><p>By Mary Therese Biebel</p><p>mbiebel@www.timesleader.com</p></bylineMeta></div><div class="metaInfo"><factboxMeta><p><strong>IF YOU GO </strong></p><p><strong>What:</strong> The Great Russian Nutcracker</p><p><strong>Who:</strong> Presented by the Moscow Ballet, joined onstage by local dance students</p><p><strong>When:</strong> 7 p.m. Dec. 17, with doors opening at 5:30 p.m.</p><p><strong>Where: </strong>F.M. Kirby Center, 71 Public Square, Wilkes-Barre, with doors opening at 5:30 p.m.</p><p><strong>Tickets:</strong> start at $29, plus fees.</p></factboxMeta></div>

An event ‘as excitingas Christmas morning’