This year marks the 33rd anniversary of Westport Academy of Dance’s annual “The Nutcracker” ballet.

“The Nutcracker” involves all grade levels of students from Westport Academy of Dance.

The audition process ran from late September into early October, and since then, male and female dancers have been rehearsing every weekend to make sure that the performance in December is “on pointe.”

Lulu Busk ’17 has been involved in “The Nutcracker” annual show since she was seven.

Busk’s first role in the show was a soldier and an Arabian attendant; but now, she’s in the limelight as lead Candy Cane. .

“For me, personally, as the years have gone on, the audition process has become more and more difficult,” Busk said. “However, it’s incredibly exciting to get to play bigger roles as I get older.”

According to Nancy Hyland-Zindell, the program director, everyone who auditions gets a part.

“We want everyone to feel part of the show,” Hyland-Zindell said.

This year specifically, there are about 130 dancers performing in the the production.

However, in past years, the numbers have ranged between 100 and 140 kids.

Julia Rosier ’18 has been performing in the coveted show since she was six years old. But even after eight years of performing in the ballet, she manages to keep interested.

“It’s only once a year, so every year it seems new,” Rosier said. “It never seems repetitive.”

Harley Kowalsky ’15 has been performing in “The Nutcracker” for the past six years; however, she agrees with Rosier that it always manages to seem fresh and new.

“The advantages to doing the same production every year is that you can always improve and always get better and different parts,” Kowalsky said. “So you’re really never performing the exact same show as you did in the years before.”

According to Hyland-Zindell, the show has been evolving ever since its debut.

This year, Hyland-Zindell and her co-directors have decided to change the ending of the show after 30 years of the traditional finale. So this year is definitely one you don’t want to miss.

“There’s always little things each year that make it feel new,” Hyland-Zindell said. “But the sense of tradition is important too, we’ve realized.”

Busk especially loves that sense of tradition. Her only complaint was her aching feet after four hours of squeezing into pointe shoes.

“But despite the blisters,” Busk said, “we all manage to get through it.”