Good evening.

My name is Joseph Morrissey, and I'm the director of dance at Interlochen Center for the Arts.

On behalf of our Interlochen Arts Academy students, faculty and staff, it is my pleasure to welcome you to this very special performance of The Nutcracker.

Since its founding in 1928.

Interlochen has promoted world friendship through the universal language of the arts.

Nowhere is that guiding principle more evident than in our annual production of The Nutcracker.

On stage and the orchestra and behind the scenes, the young artists involved in this production hail from 39 states and eleven countries, including Venezuela, China and Afghanistan.

They join together from across the country and around the world to transform their passion into purpose.

No matter what path our students pursue, they will draw from this experience and their training at Interlochen to solve complex problems, overcome challenges and inspire positive change.

We are overjoyed to welcome in-person audiences back to Interlochen, and we are deeply grateful to Detroit Public Television for making this broadcast accessible to all of you from the comfort and safety of your homes.

I invite you to explore our many arts education programs on our website at Interlochen dot org and to enjoy additional webcast performances.

But for now, please sit back, relax and let Interlochen Arts Academy take you on a wondrous journey, celebrating community, connection and the magic of the holidays.

I hope you enjoyed the thrilling conclusion of Act one of The Nutcracker.

Now let's take a moment to go behind the scenes to hear from our student cast, our conductor Leslie Dunner, members of the creative team and even me about bringing this production to life.

The big difference in this year's Nutcracker versus last year is that we now have an audience, and the energy of that audience helps feed the dancers, feed the performers and the musicians, everyone who's involved in the performanc because really it's for the public why we do this.

Parts of this year's production are brand new, including newly designed animations, set pieces, costumes and even revised choreography that is tailor made for the dancers.

We have a new candy cane dance this year before the Sugar Plum and the Prince Pas and it's a really fun, kind of lighthearted dance before the big Pas they have, and it's one of my favorites this year.

I really think being able to dance alongside all of my peers this year unmasked and being able to touch really means a lot.

I think it's really a testament to the resilience that we've had to have over these last few years.

It's been so exciting.

The music is incredible and I'm so excited to be able to have live music, so.

But you know, it is.

It is tough, and it's like keeping making sure to like, keep the persona and keep the character.

And that's been a really good challenge.

We have these moments that you live for and you adjust accordingly.

Watch the endings of every single piece because the endings are always written as boom boom, but that may not be what we do depending on what's happening on stage.

A dancer may have a different choreography that could be yum.... bum... or yum bum or yum bum bum.

So watch for those things.

Here at Interlochen, we pride ourselves on our interdisciplinary nature and how we cross collaborate with different divisions.

So obviously we use the dancers and the musicians.

But some of the unsung heroes that you may not think about are our design and production majors and our interdisciplinary art majors who work the backstage area so they might be running the light board, running the audio board, projections, moving scenery, dressing in the costume area, sort of the unsung heroes of of our group There are at least 80 to 100 costumes that we need to prepare for The Nutcracker every year.

So I start tearing up when I see the costumes on stage and the dancers making them come alive.

That's usually my favorite part.

And then being backstage and hearing how joyful all the kids are once they feel comfortable with what they're doing and then the dressers also getting quick changes completed and high fives going around and everybody feeling pretty great.

Thing about that makes this so special is everyone coming together from the costume department to the technical crew, to the lighting designer, to the conductor to the stage manager.

All of us coming together to make this a truly magical experience for the audience I hope you enjoyed that peek behind the curtain.

Students at Interlochen Arts Academy study academics in addition to one of seven different arts areas - Creative Writing, Dance, Interdisciplinary Arts, Film, Music, Theater and Visual Arts.

Many of them found their way to the academy by attending our world renowned Interlochen Arts Camp.

In fact, the baby mouse you saw in the first act battle scene attended Interlochen Arts Camp for the first time last summer.

Interlochen is committed to ensuring that every student with the artistic potential and passion to thrive here can access our world class training.

The students performing in this production of The Nutcracker collectively received over $5 million in financial aid and scholarships to attend Interlochen, part of the nearly $17 million awarded to over 14 hundred academy and camp students this year.

$3 million in aid and scholarships was awarded to just under 400 students from Michigan.

If you or someone you know might be interested in attending our 95th summer season at Interlochen Arts Camp, now is the time to visit our website.

Choose a program and apply.

Use the code SWEETS before January 10th and we'll waive your application fee.

We also have many summer employment opportunities that include housing on our beautiful twelve hundred acre campus near Traverse City in northern Michigan.

Or perhaps you'd like to attend one of the hundreds of exciting guest artists, student or faculty performances we present as part of the Interlochen Arts Festival each year.

Whatever draws you to Interlochen, I hope to see you on campus next summer.

Now, let's hurry on to the Land of Sweets for the joyous conclusion of The Nutcracker.