Coupeville Sports

Sylvia Hurlburt (Holly Craggs photo)

Skyy Lippo (right) performs on stage. (Joe Lippo photo)

Contributed by Joe Lippo

Every year, we step forward into a challenge.

There’s always that big game, or that pivotal match, or a come-from-behind victory. We prepare for this for the entire year.

Now it’s time for the big show outside the diamond, off the field, and on the stage at South Whidbey High School.

It’s time for “The Nutcracker.”

This is when the entire island comes together.

There are open auditions, and many people try their hand (or feet) at different types of dancing, from ballet to classical.

Unlike many other sports on the island, there are cuts. That is to say, if you’re not good enough, you are asked to practice up, get better, and come back next year.

It’s a rough gig.

I mean, how do you tell an eight-year-old she didn’t make it? The truth is that dancers, unlike any other young athlete in this day and age, are prepared for rejection very early in the game.

In other words, dancers are tough.

If you are selected, your challenge is only just beginning.

Even if you DO make the cut, there is a backup, an understudy. If you fail to learn the part, or are injured, there is somebody (literally) waiting in the wings to take your spot.

The show, after all, must go on. And it will go on, with or without you.

Additionally, the show is in December, and auditions are in September. Rehearsal is for the next three months. You might get Sunday off IF you’re doing well.

Dance instructors know that this is THE show.

They are not the touchy-feely people that you are imagining in your heads right now; they are more like drill sergeants.

Your motivation to succeed is that other boy or girl that is just waiting for you to fail.

It does not matter what your part is, from the smallest bumblebee to the stars of the show, such as Drosselmeyer, the Snow Queen, or Clara.

There is a certain amount of soft talk at first as you learn your parts, but as the show draws ever closer, the instructors will lose patience with that step you are missing or that leap that isn’t high enough, or if you can’t lift that ballerina.

And they will lose their patience in a very loud and direct manner in front of everyone.

Especially if you have been here before.

So it is a huge accomplishment when somebody can manage to make the cut on a regular basis.

Like Coupeville’s own ballerina Skyylynn Lippo (CMS 8th grade) and tap dancer Sylvia Hurlburt (CHS Junior), who have earned parts in the big show for the better part of a decade.

They have been facing down the pressure, enduring the grueling three month, six-day-a-week rehearsal schedule, then executing in front of hundreds of people per night in an equally challenging show schedule.

Eight shows in two weeks is the norm, and twice on Saturday. Each show you have one chance to get it right.

Skyy and Sylvia are up to the challenge, and are routinely flawless.

Yes, this is the Coupeville Sports blog, but don’t even try to tell Sylvia and Skyy that dance is not a sport.

They ignore the smaller aches and pains like football players. They dance hurt like hockey players.

In addition, there are 60-second costume changes, something that no other sport does.

If they fall, they get right back up and reserve the tears of pain for after the show. Tears, after all, will streak your makeup, and nobody has time to redo it.

Come find out for yourself in December. Ask Sylvia or Skyy for directions.