With the switch in the time of finals this year, as Ames High is having them before the student and staff go off to their holiday break, there comes a drawback for some of the friendly faces in the halls. Iowa State Center hosts their Nutcracker every year at this time, and it will be crucial for the dancers throughout the halls to be on top of their game during this busy period.

Some members of the casting for Nutcracker are new to finals, as the long testing periods are a first for these anxious freshman. “I think it’s really hectic especially since it’s my first year here and I’ve never taken finals before and I don’t really know what to expect. And then normally for nutcracker week we don’t get home until 12am so it will be really crazy trying to figure out when to study after and before rehearsal,” says freshman Beth Cyr.

The question these dancers will be asking themselves is not if they are ready for finals, but how much coffee it will take to get them through the next 2 weeks. On top of the dancing madness, the cast members will be lacking energy from low amounts of sleep each night. “We usually are short on sleep during nutcracker week regardless, because we have rehearsal from after school and sometimes don’t get home until midnight during nutcracker. I know that you don’t get much sleep preparing for finals even without nutcracker so I don’t expect much sleep if I want to study and be prepared,” said Cyr.

When prompted with how senior Alexa Cross felt about finals being the week after her multiple parts in the grand performance she said, “I am very stressed. Right now trying to get everything done, especially since teachers keep giving us more work, is hard. I’ll probably be up until 3, maybe 2, just to get all of my homework done. I am worried, even though having finals before break is going to make it a nicer break, it’s very overwhelming. ”

Even with all of the stress on their mind, you can expect to see a great performance from the Iowa State Center’s Nutcracker cast. “I think I’ll still be able to enjoy myself still when I’m dancing because you don’t really think about school work when you are dancing,” said senior Allie Mullen, who is the dew drop fairy along with various other roles. ”But when I’m doing the school work it’ll be a lot more stressful, but I won’t be thinking about the work when I’m dancing, I’ll be thinking about the dance.”