From under the skirt to the top of the bill.
When the community comes out to take in the 2025 rendition of the Christmas classic show “The Nutcracker” at Russell Auditorium Dec. 12-14, they will see Gatewood School student Isabelle Rocker’s journey to the lead role of Clara reach its fruition.
What began almost three decades ago at Georgia College & State University under director Amelia Pelton continues, and for the second year Director of Dance Natalie King and Dance Lecturer Juliana Freude present the story of Clara, a nutcracker doll come to life and their experiences with the Mouse King, the Sugar Plum Fairy and many others.
For 15-year-old Isabelle, this will be her eighth time in “The Nutcracker” cast going back to age 7. She is one of several students in the GCSU Department of Theatre and Dance’s Community Dance Program who begin tireless work all the way back in the summer preparing for the wintertime show.
“I love this program,” she said. “I have made really good friends. It’s like a completely different life than my school life.
“I just fell in love with (‘The Nutcracker’). I have so much fun on stage. A little kid running around in circles.”
“She is a beautiful dancer,” said Freude. “I have been able to work with her a year-and-a-half now. I have seen her abilities improve consistently. She is taking all the feedback I am providing her, and I see it is creating her into a beautiful dancer and artist. I am excited to see her put that on stage for everyone to enjoy.”
Tara Rocker is Isabelle’s mother, and she has two daughters — including 10-year-old Eleanor — in the community program. She can recall her child actually giggling while running in circles playing a Polichinelle. That’s a role Eleanor, in the program since age 3 and perhaps Isabelle’s biggest fan, has this year as well as being a solider and part of the dragon.
“I was laughing so hard at Mother Ginger. I thought it was hilarious that a man was dressed up,” said Isabelle.
“Mother Ginger has this huge skirt that the little dancers come running out from underneath,” said Tara. “It’s adorable.”
Isabelle has also played a Harlequin doll, a solider, a poinsettia, a reindeer, a dragon, a candy cane and just a little girl in “The Nutcracker.”
And now Clara. She is at a Christmas party in a white dress and is seeing her friends for the first time since Easter. She receives the gift of a nutcracker and falls asleep with it. This leads to a “terrible” dream of being chased by rats, but the nutcracker comes to life and saves her. They proceed to travel through a “winter wonderland” with various fairies.
“All these people come and present her as a princess and dance for her,” said Isabelle. “I will never forget when I was a little girl it was really the first time I saw it up close, people dancing on point shoes. I loved it. I started ballet to be on point shoes. Now I realize I’m at that age I wanted to be when I was that age. Getting used to being the role model for the little girls.”
“That’s one of the greatest parts of this program,” said Tara. “The exposure Isabelle has had when she was little. Now that she is maturing into a role model, she also has role models still here. College students, parents. Instructors are fantastic. It presents itself on “The Nutcracker” stage.”
“This is the first year I’ve worked with college students, being in choreography with them,” said Isabelle. “They do my hair. Annie is the Snow Queen, and I have a lot of fun with her.”
Isabelle is now getting to where she can hear a song on a ride home and think it would make a good dance.
“I guess I have a mindset for choreography,” she said. “I make up dances with my friends now that I’ve gotten older. I do a lot of dancing anywhere. Come up with something on the spot. I think it’s funny sometimes, emotional.”
“I’ve grown up watching these beautiful girls dance,” Tara said, who is not in “The Nutcracker” herself like other moms and dads she knows. “Get to be backstage and watch them grow as dancers.
“It is a whole family affair. Whether you are on stage, backstage, this is a community program. My son and husband are great supporters. We have family members who come from all over to see it. It sets the Christmas tone for our family and a lot of families.”
Putnam County’s Avery Owens and Jasper County’s Destiny Peete are high school seniors playing Dew Drop Fairies. Avery explains this as the queen of the flowers, the biggest and the brightest. She also has her own “funny story” to share about being an 8-year-old Polichinelle in a previous show.
“There’s this big table, metal underneath,” she said. “I got up before I was supposed to and hit my head on the table before I got out on stage. It was very disorienting. I got through it, continued on, did my dance. It was a pretty hard head hit.”
Destiny skipped that role, but has had just about every other one imaginable. She loves the idea of performing in front of multitudes in Milledgeville.
Rehearsals begin in September after the cast list comes out in August, Avery said that is an exciting time to be thinking about a Christmas show even before Labor Day. In fact, it’s spring time when they start wondering what roles they will land in “The Nutcracker.” One day that could be Snow Queen or Sugar Plum Fairy.
“As the director of GCSU Community Dance, what I enjoy most is watching the magic of ‘The Nutcracker’ unfold for both the performers and the audience,” said King. “It is a true honor to guide dancers of differing ages, witnessing their growth, excitement, and passion on stage. GCSU’s production uniquely blends classical ballet with jazz, tap and contemporary movement, giving familiar scenes a vibrant new perspective while honoring tradition.
“We also incorporate elements inspired by our local culture and history, such as The Dance of the Peacock, a tribute to Milledgeville’s famed writer Flannery O’Connor and her love for these majestic birds. This year, we’re elevating the experience even further with new set pieces and immersive digital projections, designed to transport the audience into the enchanting world of ‘The Nutcracker.’”
Freude, originally from Ohio, joined GCSU’s dance faculty last school year after extensive experience in the art in performing and instructing.
“This year we are trying to create a different, even more magical holiday atmosphere,” she said. “With a lot of our props and sets on top of all the choreographic choices. We hope it will be a more surprising and exciting moment for audiences. It will have a bit of a different approach to it, but that doesn’t mean the storyline has changed. It’s just the visuals we hope to portray this year.”
Ethan Rogers returns in the title role, and Freude said they worked to make sure it is a different challenge for him, another level attached to it so that he can grow as a performer.
In the second act, Clara and The Nutcracker will watch candy canes, the return of the peacock, angels, flowers and others. King said the GCSU golfers, coached by Ben English, make their stage debut in the Dance of Trepak.
Woodbridge, Beckman and Santa Margarita football teams will be going for CIF state titles on Saturday at Fullerton, Buena Park and Saddleback College.
All the finals in 15 divisions will be held either Friday or Saturday in Orange County.
In the 7-AA division, Connor McBride’s Woodbridge Warriors (7-8) will meet Redding Christian (14-0) Saturday at 11 a.m. at Fullerton.
In the 4-A division, Marcello Giuliano’s Beckman Patriots (12-3) will take on El Cerrito (12-2) Saturday at 7 p.m. at Buena Park.
In the open division, Carson Palmer’s Santa Margarita team (10-3) meets De La Salle (12-0) Saturday at 8 p.m. at Saddleback College.
OPEN: De La Salle (12-0) vs. Santa Margarita (10-3) on Saturday, Dec. 13 at 8 p.m. at Saddleback College
DIVISION 1–AA: Folsom (13-1) vs. Cathedral Catholic (11-2) on Friday, Dec. 12 at 8 p.m. at Saddleback College.
DIVISION 1–A: Central East, Fresno (13-1) vs. Pacifica, Oxnard (15-0) on Saturday, Dec. 13 at 3:30 p.m. at Saddleback College.
DIVISION 2–AA: St. Mary’s, Stockton (12-2) vs. Bakersfield Christian (13-0) on Fri., Dec. 12 at 4 p.m. at Saddleback College.
DIVISION 2–A: Sonora (14-0) vs. Rio Hondo Prep (15-0) on Saturday, Dec. 13 at 11:30 a.m. at Saddleback College.
DIVISION 3–AA: St. Ignatius, S.F. (8-6) vs. Ventura (13-2) on Friday, Dec. 12 at 8 p.m. at Fullerton.
DIVISION 3–A: McClymonds, Oakland (11-2) vs. RF Kennedy, Delano (12-3) on Saturday, Dec. 13 at 7 p.m. at Fullerton.
DIVISION 4–AA: Sutter (13-1) vs. Barstow (11-3) on Friday, Dec. 12 at 8 p.m. at Buena Park.
DIVISION 4–A: El Cerrito (12-2) vs. Beckman 12-3) on Saturday, Dec. 13 at 7 p.m. at Buena Park.
DIVISION 5–AA: Bishop O’Dowd, Oakland (10-4) vs. Christian, El Cajon (8-7) on Friday, Dec. 12 at 4 p.m. at Buena Park.
DIVISION 5–A: Calaveras, San Andreas (12-2) vs. Bishop Union (12-3) on Saturday, Dec. 13 at 3 p.m. at Fullerton.
DIVISION 6–AA: Lincoln, San Jose (11-3) vs. Valley Center (8-6) on Friday, Dec. 12 at 4 p.m. at Fullerton.
DIVISION 6–A: Winters (13-1) vs. Morse, San Diego (10-4) on Saturday, Dec. 13 at 3 p.m. at Buena Park.
DIVISION 7–AA: Redding Christian (14-0) vs. Woodbridge, Irvine (7-8) on Sat., Dec. 13 at 11 a.m. at Fullerton.
DIVISION 7–A: Balboa, San Francisco (11-2) vs. South El Monte (11-4) on Saturday, Dec. 13 at 11 a.m. at Buena Park.
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Dec. 8, 2025, 5:02 a.m. CT
Cal Petersen held onto a simple childhood dream: He wanted to play for the Waterloo Black Hawks.
He grew up in eastern Iowa, and he gravitated toward hockey – a sport often trumped by more popular sports in the state, like baseball, basketball, football and wrestling – because of his family’s history.
And while most young players dreamed of making it to the National Hockey League, Petersen set his sights on the local USHL – the top junior hockey league in the United States – team.
MURRAY—Murray State Athletics boasted another successful Giving Tuesday earlier this week with $289,800 raised to support the department’s strategic priorities and initiatives while the department continuously invests in a world-class experience of the Racers’ more than 400 student-athletes.
The philanthropic day was the second-biggest Giving Tuesday total in Racer Athletics history behind last December’s total of $409,787.
PHILADELPHIA — The ball found him in the left arc, with the game hanging in the balance at the Xfinity Mobile Arena.
Tie score. 75 seconds left.
Throughout the contest, the Lakers’ offense had sputtered, misfired, stalled.
Then, LeBron James caught, rose, and released. The arc of the shot–– pure. The swish––silent. The crowd, moments earlier a raging sea of noise, was suddenly, stunningly, subdued.
It was the exclamation point on a 29-point, tour-de-force reminder, a 112-108 Lakers victory carved from resilience and authored by an old master who decided, when it mattered most, to take the pen back.
James can do what he wants. He sees the collection of youth on the court; nonetheless, it flourishes under his gaze. But when they need big brother to step in and tend to the business, they can’t; that’s why he is there.
On Sunday, business was messy. Business was necessary.
Luka Dončić, returning from a transatlantic journey for the birth of his daughter, labored to a 31-point, 15-rebound, 11-assist triple-double—his 49th 30-point triple-double, moving him past Russell Westbrook and Nikola Jokić for second all-time.
But his shots often rimmed out, his rhythm––absent.
Austin Reaves fought through an off-night where the lid sat snug on the basket.
Enter the connector. The conductor. The closer.
“I really thought his play throughout the game gave us such a lift,” head coach JJ Redick said. “LeBron was like our connector tonight.”
James wasn’t just a scorer; he was a solver. He set bone-rattling screens. He leveraged his gravity. He played a cerebral, grinding game, picking his spots with the precision of a surgeon until the moment demanded a sledgehammer.
That moment arrived with the score knotted at 105 after a Joel Embiid jumper. The Lakers’ previous four possessions: a Reaves miss, a Dončić miss, a Dončić turnover, another Reaves miss. The offense was adrift. The play call was simple, timeless: get the ball to LeBron.
He delivered the three. On the next trip, a 20-foot dagger. Ballgame.
“That was vintage ‘Bron,” Dončić said. “He just decided the game.”
Dončić finished 11-of-14 from the line, his free throws icing the win, but the night belonged to the elder statesman.
“I was tired,” Luka said. “Mentally, I wasn’t there much. I’m just glad we got a win.”
The win was a testament to layered strength. It was Deandre Ayton’s defensive versatility, switching onto Tyrese Maxey, who scored 28 points to lead Philadelphia, and bothering Embiid, who poured in 16 points on 4-of-21 shooting.
It was the team bending but not breaking after a 10-point first-half deficit. It was, as Redick noted, the luxury of having multiple suns in a solar system.
“Some nights… we played through LeBron a lot in the second half tonight. Down the stretch, we played through him,” Redick said.
For James, the win was a personal reaffirmation after injuries and a streak-snapping quiet night in Toronto. He needed the win to show that he still had the magic he’s carried for 23 seasons inside him.
He has it. He has the calm. He has the clutch gene. He now has 1,015 regular-season wins, surpassing Robert Parish for sole possession of second place on the all-time list. A number that speaks of longevity, excellence, and nights like this—nights where he observes, he calculates, and then, decisively, he strikes.
The Lakers will board their flight back to Los Angeles 2-1 on a taxing East Coast trip, and 17-6 on the season.
They will carry many things as they head home: their luggage, Dončić’s historic triple-double and another notch in the win column.
But they also carry the feeling, the secure knowledge that in the grinding heart of a close game, they have an ageless weapon.
A player who can, with a single shot, silence an arena and show the annals of NBA lore that legends don’t fade—they wait for their moment to roar.
Every day is a new experience for Rotary Youth Exchange student Leo Canudas — including the area’s recent snowfalls. The United States was on the shortlist of countries Canudas wanted to attend school in for the year, after years of asking his mom when it would be his turn to spend a year abroad as part of the Rotary Youth Exchange. He did not know anything about Wisconsin when he was finally told he had been accepted and where he would be going. He did learn that Wisconsin is “full of cheese” and that it can get pretty cold. When he arrived at Gibraltar this past fall, he discovered that American school days are longer than those in Bolivia, but he quickly immersed himself after deciding to join the football team.
Canudas’ fall at Gibraltar included being named homecoming king and scoring a touchdown on his first and only carry of the game. A boxer in his home country, Canudas is also taking up another sport he has never played before: basketball. He says it is all part of the Rotary Youth Exchange experience and adds that sometimes you only have one chance to do something — and you should take advantage of it when it comes up.
Canudas will be enrolled at Gibraltar until the end of the school year, by which point he hopes to catch a Packers game and a boxing match before he goes home. You can learn more about the Rotary Youth Exchange program at this link.
HEAR THE STORY ABOUT CANUDAS’ TOUCHDOWN IN THIS YEAR’S GIBRALTAR HOMECOMING GAME
Six Grade 9 players round out the squad.
PRINCE ALBERT – High school basketball season is underway in Prince Albert and the Carlton Crusaders senior girls team had the chance to open in the city at the Kelly Smith Memorial Tournament at Ecole St. Mary
The Crusaders advanced to Saturday’s final after a 68-31 victory over the Indian Head Broncos on Saturday afternoon.
Crusaders head coach Kelsey Pearson said that the dominant performance was great but the club is still working out a few bad habits.
“We have got some work to do,” Pearson said. “Obviously, we missed a lot of easy buckets and that kind of set us back a bit. When your shots aren’t falling, it’s important your defence is even better.”
“We had a little bit of foul trouble,” she added. “We have a young bench, so we’re trying to get the minutes, which was great for them.”
The team got into foul trouble in the third quarter against Indian Head, but eventually fixed things and pulled away further in the fourth quarter. Pearson said the early adversity had its benefits.
“It’s good for it to happen early because then it’s something we can work on in the future,” she said. “We need our players in the game. It’s important that they recognize and understand that.”
As the team got further into the lead against Indian Head, the Crusaders could use their Grade 9 players to give them floor experience.
“We couldn’t get everyone in today, but yesterday we got everyone in,” she said. “We have 14 on our team, so it’s not always going to be like that.”
The Crusaders are coming off a trip to Hoopla as a young team last season. While they’re a more experienced team this year, Pearson said the squad still has many new players.
“We’re young and the experience isn’t there as it has been previous years, but our older girls are doing great at leading, and our younger girls are pretty smart, so they’re catching on quick,” she said. “We’ll just keep working.”
The Crusaders have two Grade 12 players but only one who was on the team last year, guard Lilly Slack. The team has five Grade 11 players, one Grade 10 and six Grade 9 players.
Slack said the team has a good mix of youth and veteran players. Even though it’s still early in the season, she likes what she’s seen so far.
“I think we have a lot of potential on our team,” she said. “Come five months from now, I think we’ll be a very strong team. We’ll be fast, (and) we’ll be running teams to the ground.
“I think our Grade 9s will get a lot of experience and I think we’ll be really fast. I think we’ll have a bunch of good tournaments,” she added.
Slack said that the team likes to stretch the floor and uses their speed to create offence.
“We would like to be a team that runs the court, has fast breaks, and good defence,” she said.
Pearson also said that the roster had a nice balance with the large group of Grade 11 and Grade 9 players.
“Those young girls have never experienced regionals, getting to Hoopla, so they don’t know that competitive drive yet,” she said.
“I’m really hoping to push the girls as far as we can. I would love to give those girls that experience and hopefully make it to Hoopla or get as far as we can with this team.”
The Crusaders opened the Kelly Smith Memorial with a 69-25 win over the Weyburn Eagles on Friday before advancing to the final with the win over Indian Head on Saturday.
Pearson liked what she saw from the players in their first tournament of the season at St. Mary.
“I’m super proud of the girls. They’ve been doing great, working hard. I mean, we can always get better and improve, and the ceiling’s a little higher for us, so we’ve got lots to work on, which is the exciting part, right? Seeing the growth is what I’m most looking forward to this season,” Pearson said.
The Crusaders lost the championship game 62-35 to the Swift Current Ardens on Saturday night but Pearson was still happy to advance to the final.
“I’m just really proud of them,” she said.
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