With the holidays approaching, students have begun to embrace the festive spirit, whether it be listening to Christmas songs, buying presents for friends and family, or participating in a performance of the classic ballet, The Nutcracker.

An annual holiday tradition, the California Academy of Performing Arts (CAPA) held a total of eight performances of The Nutcracker from Dec. 4 to 8.

Sophomore Laine Ratzer said the CAPA performances followed the traditional story of The Nutcracker. This year, she played the Rose Queen, leading the rest of the roses in a waltz for Clara.

“I love the story of The Nutcracker, so performing as a character makes it really fun,” Laine said. “We [worked on it] since June, so for almost 7 months.”

Laine said this was her twelfth performance of The Nutcracker. She said it has not gotten boring because each year she plays a new role.

“Sometimes the teachers also change the choreography to keep it interesting,” Laine said.

Senior Lauren Ratzer said every year CAPA dancers ask at least 30 boys to join the cast, acting as guests for the opening party scene. This year, a group of 10 PHS senior guys joined the performances.

“Usually we bring them from Campo, or Miramonte, out on the other side of the tunnel,” Lauren said. “But this year I decided to ask some of my friends just to have fun and do it with us.”

Senior Chad Finkel said he agreed to participate in the performances when Lauren asked him and his friends if they would be interested in acting as dates for the dancers.

“It sounded fun because she brought up that we would be meeting new pple from all over the East Bay and wearing fancy tuxedos,” Finkel said.

Senior Connor Christensen was also asked by Lauren to join the cast.

“I heard we [would get] to dance with some beautiful ladies,” Christensen said.

Christensen has performed in school renditions of Les Misérables, Bye Bye Birdie, and Leading Ladies. Outside of school, he has appeared in Ramona Quimby and 13: The Musical. Although unfamiliar with The Nutcracker, Christensen said he was excited to participate in the ballet.

“[I was] most excited about meeting some beautiful girls because my game needs some work if you know what I mean,” Christensen said.

Finkel said they rehearsed about five times for approximately one to two hours each rehearsal.

“For the first 30 minutes of The Nutcracker we [played] as the dancers’ guests and [stood] on stage as the girls danced and twirled around us,” Finkel said.

Senior Wes Dunlap, who has participated in both school and outside of school performances, said he looked forward to performing because a group of his friends were doing it.

“[It was just basically hanging out with the guys, which is always fun,” Dunlap said.

Lauren said she was excited her friends agreed to do the performances.

“It was a lot of fun and kind of interesting to see them out of their main element,” Lauren said.