BUFFALO, N.Y. (WKBW) — If you're looking for holiday magic this weekend, head to Shea's Performing Arts Center in Downtown Buffalo, where Neglia Ballet Artists are performing "The Nutcracker."
For more than a decade, the premier dance company has brought this tradition to the stage. The show starts Friday and features two talented young dancers. Phoebe Wright,13, and Avery Camay, 11, are both playing Marie in the production.
"What's your favorite thing about ballet dancing?" I asked.
"I would say, like the movement, like the control, and then there's the opposite side of, like, fast," Wright replied.
For Camay, it's all about music.
"It's the music for me," she said. "I just love dancing with the music. I think it's fun."
The young dancers tell me about sharing the spotlight.
"It's fun because you can watch how she improves, and I improve," she said. "You can see how, like Avery does something so that you can try to improve it."
Neglia, founder and artistic director, Sergio Neglia, expressed his pride in watching his students perform.
"It's incredible satisfaction," Neglia said.
Neglia and Heidi Halt, his wife and executive director, say they're proud to see their students perform and grow his international style of ballet.
"Because it's not just ballet," he said. "We're telling the story through the movements of ballet."
Halt said she loves having two dancers in the lead role.
"I love that we have two Maries," she said. "It's really nice to see the different characters that they bring. It's a different ballet when you have a different person doing the role of Marie."
WATCH: 'Not just ballet': Two young dancers share spotlight in Neglia's 'The Nutcracker' at Shea's Theater
This marks the 16th year Neglia Ballet has performed "The Nutcracker" at Shea's, with 65 students from 10 different area dance studios and 22 professional dancers.
"We have a dancer from American Ballet Theater coming. He's from Ukraine. One who's from Colorado ballet. He's Colombian," Halt said. "We enhance it every year. And it really is a different performance every year, because a lot of the dancers change over."
I asked the young performers how they stay concentrated.
"I kind of have to pick a spot and focus on it," Wright said.
"I try not to think about it because it helps more," Camay said.
For audiences, Neglia said, you don't have to know anything about ballet to enjoy the story of The Nutcracker.
"This brings the true life of what the story is about. People who know nothing about ballet – just attracted to it," Neglia said. "Just fantastic."
Tickets are available for performances on Friday, December 5, at 7 p.m., Saturday at 2 p.m., and Sunday at 1 p.m. at Shea's Theater.
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