Senior Sage Leland: Academy of American Dance

While “The Nutcracker” represents the wonder and joy of the Christmas holiday season, senior Sage Leland, who has participated in many of her studio’s performances, finds it to be a symbol of commitment.

After seeing San Francisco Ballet’s version of the production at an early age, Leland has held a deep interest in “The Nutcracker.” Then, when she was seven, Leland joined the Academy of American Dance. “I started as this little tiny angel,” she said. “It’d be five little girls and this one more advanced dancer that was leading it. At the time, I was like, ‘This dancer is the coolest person I’ve ever seen.’ Cut to several years later, and I got to be in that role.”

Leland has experienced countless hours of production in each year of “The Nutcracker.” “Essentially, your weekends are completely gone,” she said. “On Saturday, we pretty much have a full day of rehearsal. You get home around 6:30 p.m. In order to perform, you need to be involved in rigorous dance, so that’s probably 12 to 15 hours of dance a week. While she cannot participate in the production this year, she found that the commitment was well worth it in previous years. “When you get up onstage, the lights, the audience and the adrenaline rush are such special experiences,” she said. “You get to be onstage with all the friends you’ve been working so hard with, and getting to see everything come together is so much fun.”

For Leland, “The Nutcracker” has always been bigger than the performance. “To me, I guess it’s cheesy, but ‘The Nutcracker’ is about more than just dancing; it’s about the whole rehearsal process,” she said. “It’s really cool to me that we spend so much time making it look effortless when we put so much effort into it.”