Annie Gasbarrone, left, and Addison Varney – students from the Dance Studio of Maine – take stage direction Monday from Alisa Bolotnikova, an audition director for the Moscow Ballet, during a rehearsal of The Nutcracker at the State Theatre. The one-night-only Portland performance on Tuesday is part a larger U.S. and Canada tour by the Russian group, during which they enlist young dancers in each city to play the parts of mice and snowflakes. Twenty students from the Gorham dance studio participated.

Comments are not available on this story.