Passion For Dance Unites High School Girls Getting Ready For Last Performance

Olivia Vandewater and Rebecca Della Croce are both 17 years old. In the spring they will graduate from high school and then head off to college.

For two young women that grew up in the age of cell phones and social media, they’ve spent a lot of time mastering the traditional art of ballet.

Both of them dance with The New Jersey Youth Ballet and will be performing The Nutcracker for thousands of people this holiday season. They have a lot to say about how deeply dance has affected their lives.

As far back as she can remember, Olivia Vandewater can’t recall a year where she did not dance in the New Jersey Youth Ballet’s Nutcracker.

“Every single year I get excited for Nutcracker. It’s a part of my childhood, it’s something I’ve always done,”she said.

Both her older sisters were in the production and Olivia has been in it since she was three years old. Rebecca Della Croce says that Nutcracker is like her second family.

“I come to dance and it’s like I have thirty sisters and twelve moms. Everyone is family,” she said.

Each year the New Jersey Youth Ballet produces an abridged and narrated version of Tchaikovsky’s Nutcracker.

This Nutcracker is specifically designed for families and children and it pulls in thousands of people from all over central New Jersey each year.

The ballet is danced entirely by dancers from five years old through high school.

For both Vandewater and Della Croce, this will likely be their last year dancing the Nutcracker with the New Jersey Youth Ballet. Both of them agree that dancing in The Nutcracker has had a tremendous influence on their lives.

“Dance really pushes you out of your comfort zone” says Miss Vandewater. “Dance has made me much more outgoing. I’m much more comfortable in school when I have to get up in front of the classroom.”

Miss Della Croce speaks about how dance has influenced her grades in school and taught her about perseverance.

“Any academic success that I’ve had, I can attribute a lot of that to dance.” says Della Croce. “When you work really hard at something, even if it feels really far away and feels like something you can’t achieve, you really just have to put your mind to it and put energy and effort into it and you really can do anything.”

Miss Vandewater agrees that the physical demands of dance have given her ample preparation for the real world.

“Dance really pushes your physical body to the limit, you feel like you are going to die. And when you’re done you’re like ‘Oh my god, I can’t believe I made it through that.’ But, when you’re done you just feel so proud,” she said.

Both Vandewater and Della Croce feel that dancing in The Nutcracker is different than being on a dance competition team.

Vandewater says “It’s a really nice break from competition it’s more like artistry and your passion for dance. It’s a totally different feeling.”

Della Croce says, “We work for 5 months to put something like this together, you have to love it! When you get to the stage there’s this amazing feeling of knowing that everything that you’ve done, it pay’s off.”

There’s another dancer, Emma Waxman, who has been dancing with The New Jersey Youth Ballet since she was three years old. Miss Waxman, Miss Vandewater and Miss Della Croce have been best friends since they were young children. Emma Waxman is a junior in high school and will be dancing with the company after Vandewater and Della Croce graduate.

“I’m really going to miss them when they graduate,” Waxman said. “I’m really proud of them. They’ve worked so hard and they’ve really elevated the level of dancing in the company.”

This year, Miss Della Croce will dance the role of the sugar plum fairy, the most difficult and prestigious role in the ballet. Next year it’s Waxman who will dance the role. “I’m really looking forward to it,” says Waxman.

In addition to dancing with The New Jersey Youth Ballet, both Vandewater and Della Croce have dance teaching jobs. Some of them teach the five and six year olds who are now doing The New Jersey Youth Ballet’s Nutcracker for the first time.

They relish the idea of coming back as alumni to see their students perform. Della Croce says “I can’t wait to come back and see the younger kids do some of the roles that we are doing”

Vandewater and Della Croce currently study ballet at The Dance Connection of Hillsborough. They will be performing Tchaikovsky’s Nutcracker with The New Jersey Youth Ballet at The Brook Theater at 10 Hamilton street, in Bound Brook on December 10th at 1:00 p.m. (tickets $21), at Montgomery Upper Middle School at 375 Burnt Hill Rd, in Skillman on on December 11th at 1:00 p.m. (tickets $21), at Kelsey Theatre at Mercer County Community College on Friday December 16th at 10:00 am & 7:00 p.m., Saturday December 17th at 1:00 p.m. & 4:00 p.m. & Sunday December 18th at 1:00 p.m. & 4:00 p.m. (tickets for children and seniors $14, Adults $16). For tickets visit get Nutcracker tickets NJ.