What sells out the Sedona Performing Arts Center?

Judging by the line around the corner outside the doors half an hour before the Sedona Dance Academy’s annual production of Piotr Ilyich Tchaikovsky’s “The Nutcracker” on Dec. 14, the answer appears to be community dance, community theatre and a community orchestra.

SDA was joined for the occasion by the Sedona Community and Youth Orchestra under the direction of Kristina Beachell and Courtney Yeates, with the junior section, the Prelude Orchestra, launching the afternoon with Soon Hee Newbold’s “Storm,” followed by the “Coronation March” from Giacomo Meyerbeer’s “Le Prophete” in place of the usual overture, giving the former a sound like a combination of an EDM orchestra and Paris cafe music.

The senior section, the Concert Orchestra, then took over with a smooth arrangement of “Nutcracker” themes and traditional Christmas tunes. This was played as a background to the arrival of the party guests at the Stahlbaums’, who were joined this year by “Fiddler on the Rock” Tyler Carson as one of the guests.

As in previous years, the SDA production was assembled as a pasticcio of different dance and musical styles, drawing on the episodic and flexible character of the ballet, particularly in Act 2, and began with a showcase for the very youngest dancers, to which the kids in the audience responded eagerly. The magic tricks and teddy bear dispensation were adeptly handled by Lee Israel, returning as Drosselmeyer, who also thought it would be amusing to hypnotize the whole cast with his pocket watch and then unfreeze them. Junior tappers in plaid dresses put on “Jingle Bell Rock” for the adults, who then took their own turn displaying their party finery in a spirited swirl of hoopskirts.

From there it was back to the kids for the rest of the act. The hiphoppers dancing to “Last Christmas” in red track suits seemed to have an easier job with the contemporary than with the traditional choreography. Drosselmeyer’s dolls, graceful candy-stripers, pulled Clara, danced by Siena Moreau, into a brief quartet before a sword dance performed by a very junior subaltern, Gabriel Labenz, whose wooden weapon proved too tempting for Fritz, again danced by Rupert Israel. The viewers were charmed by Fritz and Clara’s marshaling of the other youngsters, and the presentation of the titular Nutcracker came almost as a lull in the party proceedings, providing Clara with the opportunity for a short solo.

Then came the rats, to a musical setting in the style of Hans Zimmer, with smoke palling above the stage and the Rat Queen delivering a hint of Victorian dominatrix in black lace. A growing line of rats kept trying to get the Nutcracker away from Clara, who, this year, stabbed the Rat Queen, while the rest danced in formation. The Nutcracker’s soldiers — more junior tappers — stamped out a hip-hop remix of Tchaikovsky’s music, and then came the corps, the intermediate class performing the Waltz of the Snowflakes. At this level of experience, the commitment of the dancers really began to show in lightness, grace and consistency. With more than a dozen of them on stage, it also suggested the tantalizing prospect that Sedona could one day indeed produce its own corps de ballet. Spinning and sparkling, they made the music more than it was by their movement.

Act 2 began with guest dancer Eastlyn Jensen making a majestic entrance, introducing the angels and then shepherding her flock offstage. An energetic, Santa-costumed ensemble indulged in a jazz romp, fully engaged with a routine full of high kicks, hijinks and high energy, with their ribbons simulating the stripes on a candy cane. SCYO played the “Dance of the Toy Flutes” as accompaniment to a short solo by Anisa Jaffe, and then Mother Ginger entered on stilts, to the great enthusiasm of the audience, whom she encouraged to clap in time.

The most striking of the Act 2 divertissiments in this year’s show were the two succeeding scenes, the Arabian and Chinese variations, both choreographed by Danielle McNeal Strabala of the Sedona Dance Project and performed by SDA’s senior dancers. The Arabian variation was a modern-style interpretation with some cartwheels, kicks, some Egyptian-inspired posing and even a lift.

For the Chinese variation, she went full Shen Yun, with elegant scarlet costumes, sweeping contemporary orchestral music and tai chi-influenced choreography to match. More than a visual treat, it was an excellent example of a performance in which all elements are both well-chosen and well-executed. The gingerbread girls ended up in a tiny chorus line of four before the return of the corps as delicate pastel flowers, with Rupert Israel among them — perhaps as the gardener? — and the Russian variation was a series of tinsel twirls with four ladies leaping before Jensen returned with her crowd-pleasing pointe work to close the show.