"I thought it was a really awesome ballet. It told a really nice story."
More than 200 students from The Rock School for Dance Education performed one of the most famous holiday shows at the Merriam Theater.
Only their version of the classic Tchaikovsky story has a little Philly flair! They call it Nutcracker 1776. It is the philadelphia version of the nutcracker.
"There's a Benjamin Franklin, a George Washington, Thomas Jeffferson," said Derek Dunn, who played "Johnny" in the Nutcracker.
A holiday treat for 1,800 Philadelphia students from 7 city schools, the gift of ballet.
"We knew there were so many kids in Philadelphia that did not have the opportunity to come and see a production like this," said Director, Stephanie Spassoff.
"It was new and exciting, and I really liked it," said 6th grader, Leroy Brown.
"Amazing, colorful, vivid, bright, outstanding, magnificent," described 7th grade Lauren Robinson.
Believe it or not many of these kids have been performing their whole lives, and say they hope Friday's performance will inspire the little ones in the crowd to do the same.
"I am sure a lot of the children out there will see this and say well maybe I want to be a dancer and they will go take their first class and hopefully they will love it just as much as we do," said Alston Macgill.
Looks like it worked!
"They were dancing so nice, and it was so beautiful, and I am thinking that I want to be on stage too," said 2nd grader Shamiyah Boozer.
"It was so beautiful there, I wish I could be one of them," said 3rd grader Angelica Diaz.
