Watching the young dancers holding their own with the more experienced dancers was wonderful. The stage was filled with color, good cheer and wonderful music.

In the second act, Clara is introduced to wonders of Sugar Mountain and meets those in the court of the Sugarplum Fairy (Sasha Rydlizky). Different sweet confections are introduced and dance the show was practically stolen with the impeccable timing and high energy of the Trepak from Russia (Lucianna Clein, Nick Cormier, Isabella Etro, Tony Martel, Edwaed Vanzura, Kelsi Washington and Nathan Williams).

We would be remiss not to mention the dulcet sounds of the Bangor Area Children's Choir, which sounded angelic as they accompanied the Bangor Symphony Orchestra. They were utterly delightful, showed great skill and control and were simply a joy to hear.

The audience was incredibly responsive to the dancers, giving rounds of applause for moves that were complex or involved impressive timing sometimes not even waiting for a piece to be over before exploding into enthusiastic applause.

The best part of evening was watching the small kids in the audience, dressed in their holiday best, dance their way back to their cars, clutching nutcracker dolls to their chests. It's an incredible gift to the community that we can experience this magic here.