DANCE : ‘Nutcracker’ Snow Queen Reins In Kids : OC LIVE!

Catherine McCoy worked her way up from rodent to royalty, and now she’s helping others make the leap.

Her own ascendancy has taken place over 15 years, in front of the footlights, where she progressed from adolescence to adulthood and from minor to major roles in Ballet Pacifica’s “Nutcracker.” The troupe presents its 29th annual production Friday through Dec. 24 at the Irvine Barclay Theatre.

“I started out,” McCoy recalls, “as a rat,” battling the prince in the story. She was 13. “Then, I was a little girl” in the Christmas party scene. Then, a “Waltz of the Flowers” corps member, a Dewdrop fairy, a Rag Doll and a half-dozen other characters as the years passed.

This season, at 28, she reprises the regal Snow Queen, her most advanced role. Certainly one of the hardest-working “Nutcracker” dancers around, she also is taking on four other parts, including Mrs. Stahlbaum, Clara’s mother, in each and every one of the 13 performances.

Plus, she has been teaching about 120 5- to 15-year-olds their parts, rehearsing about 60 of her unruly charges at once.

“I’m exhausted after I’m finished,” she confessed. “Children, as you know, take a lot of energy out of you. I’m constantly giving corrections or teaching them how to count music and being a baby sitter: I have to tell them ‘sit down, don’t take food in here.’

“And they come to me, ‘Excuse me, Miss Kitty, I need to go to the bathroom.’ ” There’s also haggling with the parents over such things as what the children should wear.

“It’s almost more exhausting than dancing, where all I have to worry about is myself,” McCoy said. “Before performance backstage, I’m not only getting myself ready but I have to go downstairs and make sure all of my children are there, make sure they’re ready, ask if they have any questions.”

And if all that isn’t enough, she works full time as a clerk at Mission Viejo’s Mission Hospital and is the single mother of 5-year-old Briana. Life in the Kingdom of Candy isn’t what it used to be.

“I have to go to work, then go do the shows. I have to rearrange my work schedule so I can [perform]. I have to take care of my child. It’s not just having my mom drive me there and pick me up.”

But McCoy--who has been dancing since she was 7--isn’t complaining.

“I love ballet,” she said. “I love to dance, I love to perform.”

The recognition isn’t so bad either, like “when I’m out in public and someone says ‘I saw you in “Nutcracker,” that was great, I really enjoyed it.’ Just seeing the look in other people’s faces--that they had a really good time and maybe might like to come back and see us do something else.”

She enjoys passing on her enthusiasm too. “I try to leave the children with some sense of ‘Yeah, I did this part and I performed it with Ballet Pacifica, and I’m going to come back next year, maybe I’ll get a better part.’ That was my excitement each year, progressing.”

Not that she’s out of the loop.

“I’ve always dreamed of being the Sugar Plum Fairy. . . . We’ll see. I’ll keep trying.”

* What: Ballet Pacifica’s production of “Nutcracker.”

* When: Friday through Sunday and Dec. 21-23 at 7:30 p.m.; Saturday and Sunday and Dec. 21-24 at 2:30 p.m.

* Where: The Irvine Barclay Theatre, 4242 Campus Drive, Irvine.

* Whereabouts: Take the San Diego (405) Freeway to the Jamboree Road exit and head south. Turn left onto Campus Drive. The theater is on Campus near Bridge Road, across from the Marketplace mall.

* Wherewithal: $13 to $16.

* Where to call: (714) 854-4646.

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