Page 1. Lime lit THEPERFORMINGARTSINTHEWRENVALLEY · WINTER2026 · FREEINSIDE Your first opera, minus the fear AFTERDARK Five late-night jazz rooms COVERSTORY Forty dancers, one Nutcracker A month backstage with Wren Valley Ballet Plus: 38 nights out this winter

Page 2. WINTER2026 In this issue 4 Forty dancers, one Nutcracker A month in the wings, from first fitting to final bow. 7 Five questions for Mira Castellan The choreographer who wants you to stop worrying about "getting" dance. 8 Five rooms for late-night jazz Where the music starts after the theaters let out. 10 Your first opera, minus the fear Five things nobody tells you before La bohème . 11 On stage this winter Theater, dance, music and opera, December to February. Tessellate Dance rehearses Lightfall , page 7. FROMTHEEDITOR Winter is when this valley does its best work. The ballet sells out, the jazz rooms stay open late, and the opera comes back in a blizzard every February. This issue is your map. If you only go out once this season, go to something you've never seen before. Then tell us about it. June Halvorsen Editor 2

Page 3. ADVERTISEMENTWRENVALLEYSYMPHONY · NEWYEAR ' SEVE Ring it in with the Ninth. Beethoven's Symphony No. 9 with a 120-voice chorus. Then champagne in the lobby at midnight. December 31 9:30 p.m. Halvorsen Hall 200 River Road From $35 Students $10 GETTICKETS

Page 4. COVERSTORY · DANCE Forty dancers, one Nutcracker Wren Valley Ballet puts on 22 Nutcrackers in 25 days. We spent a month in the wings to see how. Words by Ellis Moreno 4

Page 5. At9:15 on a Tuesday morning in November, forty dancers are standing at the barre in a converted bus garage on Mill Street, and nobody is talking. Class is the one part of the day that never changes. Pliés, tendus, the same piano chords Adele Fournier has played for this company for nineteen years. By December it will be the only quiet hour they get. Wren Valley Ballet's Nutcracker runs 22 performances in 25 days, and for a company of forty that means everyone plays something. A soloist dances the Sugar Plum Fairy at the matinee and a snowflake at night. The artistic director, Paul Greer, has stood in as the grandfather twice. Morning class at the Mill Street studio. Tap for more photos. Then there are the children. Ninety-six of them, from eleven dance schools across the valley, split into two casts. They rehearse on Saturdays, in a separate room, with a separate rehearsal director whose main job, she says, is "keeping mice from becoming soldiers too early." The costume shop is a story on its own. There are 212 costumes in this production, and some of the tutus are older than the dancers wearing them. Each one is fitted, refitted and re-hooked every season by a staff of three and a rotating crew of volunteers who arrive with their own thimbles. Ask anyone in the building what the show is really about and you get the same answer: the first time a child in the audience gasps when the tree grows. "That sound," says Greer, "pays for the whole month." 5

Page 6. The pointe shoes are their own economy. A principal dancer goes through a pair every two or three performances, and at $110 a pair, shoes are one of the company's biggest costs after salaries. Dancers break each new pair in by hand: bend the shank, darn the tip, sew on the ribbons. Most of them can do it during a phone call. "You don't get tired in December. You get tired in January, all at once." That's Hana Ito, in her eighth season and her third as the Sugar Plum Fairy. She keeps a strict schedule: ice, dinner at 4, a nap if she can find a corner, and the same playlist on the walk to the theater. Everyone has a ritual. On opening night, the snow machine jams in the first act and a stagehand clears it with a broom handle, in the dark, without missing a cue. Nobody in the audience notices. That's the point. Shoes at the barre. A principal goes through about 40 pairs a season. SEEIT The Nutcracker December 5 to 29 Halvorsen Hall From $28 ADVERTISEMENT The Velvet Room Cocktails until 2 a.m., one block from Halvorsen Hall. Bring your ticket stub for the first round at half price. 6

Page 7. Mira Castellan founded Tessellate Dance in 2018. Its new piece, Lightfall , opens January 22. FIVEQUESTIONS Mira Castellan People say they don't "get" contemporary dance. What would you tell them? There's nothing to get. You don't get a sunset. Watch the bodies, notice what you feel, and let that be enough. What is Lightfall about? The last hour of daylight in winter. Six dancers, one lamp, and a score by a cellist who lives two streets from me. How do you start a new piece? With a walk. I film the dancers walking across the room, then I slow it down until it turns into something else. What's the hardest part of running a small company? Rent. Then everything else. We share a studio with a yoga school and a roller derby team, and we've all become friends. One show this winter you'd tell a friend to see? The ballet's Nutcracker . I'm serious. It's the reason half of us started dancing. “There's nothing to get. You don't get a sunset.” 7

Page 8. AFTERDARK Five rooms for late-night jazz The Thursday big band at the Copper Room. Tap for more photos. The Copper Room MILLDISTRICT · WEDTOSUN The big room. A 16-piece band on Thursdays and the best sound system in the valley. Get there by 9 or stand. Blue Lantern ORRINSTREET · NIGHTLY Forty seats, no cover before 10, and an open jam on Mondays that runs until the bartender gives up. Hollow Note RIVERSIDE · FRIANDSATA basement under a bookshop. Trios, quartets and the occasional poet. Cash only. Also good: The Standard for Sunday brunch sets, and Little Monk for students on Tuesdays. 8

Page 9. ADVERTISEMENTS The Alder Hotel Stay downtown and walk to the show. The theater package includes a late checkout and breakfast in bed. From $189 a night WRENVALLEYCONSERVATORY Lessons for ages 5 to 85. Piano, voice, strings and jazz. Winter term starts January 11. The first lesson is free. Bell & Barrel Two hundred whiskeys and a quiet back room. Next door to the Blue Lantern. 14 Orrin Street Ellison Violins Rentals, repairs and bows rehaired while you wait. Student instruments from $19 a month. 7 Chapel Street · (555) 014-9902 9

Page 10. OPERA Your first opera, minus the fear Wren Valley Opera brings back La bohème in February. If you've never been, this is the one to start with: young artists, a cold apartment, and music you already know from a dozen movies. 1 The words are on a screen. Translations run above the stage, so you'll always know what's going on. 2 Dress for dinner, not a gala. You'll see jeans and you'll see velvet. 3 It's shorter than you think. About two hours, with an intermission. 4 Clap after the big songs. Everyone else will, so follow their lead. 5 Bring tissues to Act 4. Every regular does. 1 0

Page 11. CALENDAR On stage this winter December DEC 4-27 THEATERA Christmas Carol Wrenford Playhouse DEC 5-29 DANCE The Nutcracker Wren Valley Ballet, Halvorsen Hall DEC 12 MUSIC Messiah sing-along St. Anne's, bring a score DEC 19 MUSIC Holiday brass Riverfront bandstand, free DEC 31 MUSIC Beethoven's Ninth Wren Valley Symphony January JAN 9-10 MUSIC Winter jazz weekend Copper Room and Blue Lantern JAN 16 MUSIC Schubert by candlelight Aster String Quartet JAN 22-31 DANCE Lightfall Tessellate Dance, The Annex JAN 29 THEATER Improv night The Fold, every last Friday February FEB 5-21 THEATER The Importance of Being Earnest Wrenford Playhouse FEB 12-21 OPERA La bohème Wren Valley Opera FEB 27 MUSIC Young Artists Showcase Conservatory Hall, free FEB 28 DANCE Swing dance social Copper Room, lesson at 7 28 more shows, updated every week. SEETHEFULLCALENDAR11

Page 12. ADVERTISEMENTWRENVALLEYOPERAPRESENTS La bohème by Giacomo Puccini Four friends, one cold winter, and the love story every opera lover started with. Sung in Italian with English titles. FEBRUARY12TO21 , 2027 · HALVORSENHALL · FROM $ 30GETTICKETS