Local ballerinas Morgan and Jordan Gerlinsky will be performing on stage at the Jubilee Auditorium in Edmonton for the Nutcracker ballet, starting Dec. 12.
Morgan, 12, will be dancing her way on stage in her first full-length ballet only months after attending the Royal Winnipeg Ballet, where she took modern, ballet, character and conditioning classes. Now, she will be playing a rat in the renowned Nutcracker ballet, and her younger sister Jordan, 10, will be on stage alongside her as a party boy.
“It’s pretty cool,” said Jordan, adding that she is excited to be playing a party boy. “We dance with party girls and there are six party boys and six party girls.”
Dress rehearsal for the Nutcracker will be held in Edmonton on Wednesday, with doors opening the following evening. In total, Morgan and Jordan will dance in five performances between Thursday and Sunday.
“(I’m hoping for) more performance experience in front of a large audience . . . and to be less nervous before I go on stage,” said Morgan, adding that many of her friends will make the trip to Edmonton to watch her perform. “They said good job, and most of them are coming to see it.”
Jordan said that she hopes the opportunity will allow her to integrate better acting abilities into her dance through experience, especially in her facial expressions, as well as gaining more experience in front of a large audience.
Morgan and Jordan’s Silhouette Dance School Society Instructor Jake Hastey added that this is not just the first full-length ballet for the sisters from St. Paul, but it also an opportunity to dance to the live music of the Edmonton Symphony Orchestra in front of roughly 2,500 people.
“They’ll be 50 people in it, including a company of almost 30 professional dancers, and it’s going to be performed at the Jubilee Auditorium,” said Hastey. “I think they’re still performing with the symphony orchestra. So on top of dancing with a professional company, they’ll be dancing to live music played by the Edmonton Symphony Orchestra.”
On average, Jordan spends about 17 and a half hours dancing each week, while her older sister Morgan spends between 19 and 20 hours on the dance floor, and while both of them say it never gets boring, it certainly makes for a demanding schedule.
“It’s probably more demanding than hockey. Our son plays hockey too, and this schedule is more demanding,” said Morgan and Jordan’s father, Peter Gerlinsky, who added that it is all worth it to see his daughters succeed. “I’m just proud to see all their hard work paying off . . . It’s going to be a good experience, and the nice thing is that the girls are together.”
