By
The Associated Press
NEW YORK - Bobby Score's job involves working the hundreds of lights that illuminate the New York City Ballet's production of "The Nutcracker." Yet here he was backstage putting curlers in his daughter Faith's hair.
"No, Dad, this way Dad," said 9-year-old Faith, patiently directing her father's hands.
Faith plays Marie, the ballet's heroine. Her co-star Ryan Cardea, who plays the Nutcracker Prince, is also the child of a Lincoln Center stagehand, Sam Cardea.
"The union affiliation has always been like a family to us and now we have family in the building," said Score, a member of Local One of the International Alliance of Theatrical State Employees.
The New York City Ballet's "Nutcracker," with its sugarplum-sweet sets and George Balanchine choreography, is a Christmastime tradition that premiered in 1954. Last year a musicians' strike forced the show to go on without a live orchestra. No labor discord has marred this year's production, which started Friday.
Ryan, 12, is in his fifth year in "The Nutcracker" but his first as the Prince. "I don't really get nervous," he said backstage.
Dancing is something of a family business for him: Sam Cardea, a stagehand at the Metropolitan Opera, is a former dancer, and his wife, Linda Gelinas, is a member of the Metropolitan Opera ballet company. Ryan's sister Emily, 9, joined "The Nutcracker" cast this season.
"It's fun to see them enjoying themselves to much," said Sam. "It's a great education and experience in the arts regardless of what they do with it."
Faith, a fourth-grader, is in her second year as Marie. She and Ryan study at the School of American Ballet.
Toward the end of Act I, the Mouse King and his mice frighten Marie, who runs behind the giant Christmas tree. There Faith finds her father, who sometimes works behind the tree preparing to move it off stage.
"So I don't feel like none of my family's there," she said.
"The Nutcracker," which runs through Dec. 31 at Lincoln Center's State Theater, has two alternating casts of children, with Ryan and Faith starring in half the performances.
