Los Altos resident Kazuri Masuda dances the role of Sugar Plum Fairy in Western Ballets Nutcracker Dec. 12-14.

Los Altos resident Kazuri Masuda has a secret identity this autumn. On top of high school, Japanese classes and tutoring, the mild-mannered 15-year-old has been dancing seven days a week in preparation for “The Nutcracker” ballet. This month, she will don a short, glittery pink tutu, bedecked with sequins and spangles and embellished with a frizzy pair of pink epaulets, to assume the persona of the Sugar Plum Fairy.

The Los Altos High School freshman received an introduction to “Nutcracker” when she moved to the United States from Japan four years ago and was promptly inducted in Western Ballet, a dance school in Mountain View, and its annual holiday tradition. The school has produced “Nutcracker” for 33 years.

“When I came here, I had no idea what the story was about. I read books about it, but the stories are kind of different,” Masuda said.

Her confusion is not surprising – although based on one original text, contemporary versions of “The Nutcracker” have taken the story in a multitude of directions. Western Ballet is performing a classic interpretation of the ballet, choreographed by former Miami City Ballet dancer Yanis Pikieris. Other recent productions range from Kent Stowell’s dark reinterpretation with a Maurice Sendak set, performed every year by the Pacific Northwest Ballet in Seattle, to Mark Morris’ gender-bending, 1960s-tinged “Hard Nut.”

The ballet is based on a fairy-tale-like story the German writer E.T.A. Hoffman published in 1816. Peter Tchaikovsky composed the ballet version of the tale in 1892, and his music – particularly pieces such as the “Waltz of the Flowers” and “The Dance of the Sugar Plum Fairy” – is broadly familiar, even for those who have trouble placing what they are hearing.

The first American production of the ballet occurred not far up in the Peninsula, when San Francisco Ballet premiered a production in 1944. Since then, it has become a holiday necessity for ballet troupes large and small. Robin Ching, interim school director at Western, can rattle off a list of local groups mounting productions this year, ranging from Ballet San Jose to Pacific Ballet Theatre and Santa Clara Ballet Company. The largest troupes put on exhausting runs – 31 performances at San Francisco Ballet this month, for instance, most of them two a day – with casts that can number more than 100.

Western Ballet is staging five performances at the Mountain View Center for the Performing Arts, with a cast of 80. Professional dancers are taking on some of the trickier partnering roles, which require enough strength to hoist a ballerina into the air while making it look glamorous. Masuda said that while partnering with a (male) pro was the hardest part of her performance this year, she also enjoyed it.

“You need timing. … When you’re dancing with a partner, it’s really hard, but the guy helps you a lot, and makes you look good,” Masuda said with a grin.

Masuda has been dancing on point shoes since she was 9, and while she has taken some hip-hop and jazz classes, she said she still lives for the classical tradition.

“I started when I was 5 years old in Japan. My mom said that every time I heard music, I would start dancing, even if I was in a supermarket,” Masuda said.

She practices every day of the week during “Nutcracker” season, including all-day Saturday rehearsals. Her school’s production includes some fancy technical bits that need perfecting – in Act 2, protagonist Clara and her prince arrive in a fantasyland via hot-air balloon, descending onto the stage.

“Nutcracker” marks the developmental stages of many – perhaps most – young dancers in the United States. In her four years at Western, Masuda has done time as a soldier, a Spanish dancer, Dew Drop, a Chinese dancer and a guest at the initial party scene. This year she is dancing the role of Sugar Plum in some of the performances, as well as that of a snow fairy in the first act.

“One of the most delightful things (about “Nutcracker”) is that children come in as angels, and work up to soldiers, mice, the party scene, gingerbread. … It’s a big deal to graduate from being a mouse to being in the party scene,” Ching said, with appropriate seriousness.

Performances are scheduled 7 p.m. Dec. 12, 1 and 7 p.m. Dec. 13 and 1 and 6:30 p.m. Dec. 14 at the Mountain View Center for the Performing Arts, 500 Castro St. Tickets are $24 for adults and $23 for seniors and children under 12. For more information, visit www.westernballet.org.

Contact Eliza Ridgeway at This e-mail address is being protected from spam bots, you need JavaScript enabled to view it

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