A file photo of Cami Hirschi working on a window display at Idle Isle Candy Shop on 41 South Main Street in Brigham City. Brigham City. .
BRIGHAM CITY – While Ballet West is celebrating its 60th anniversary this year, Brigham City is getting ready for its eighth annual Nutcracker Festival happening on Friday and Saturday, Nov. 17 and 18.
The popular Christmas Ballet was first performed at the San Francisco’s War Memorial Opera on Dec. 24, 1944. It was directed by a Brigham City native Willam Christensen.
Christensen learned to dance at the Box Elder Academy of Music and Dancing.
David Walker, a member of the Historic Downtown Alliance in Brigham City, is trying to bring attention to the popular Christmas Ballet’s tie to Brigham City.
The Nutcracker was originally performed in Russia in 1892 as a two-act ballet, but the first time it was performed in the United States was due to a Brigham City son.
Willam and his brothers, Lou and Harold, all learned to dance at the Box Elder Academy of Dance, then they transformed dance in the western U.S.
The three brothers were instrumental in forming Ballet West, Portland Ballet and San Francisco Ballet companies.
“The Nutcracker Festival is to bring awareness to Brigham Citty’s tie to it,” Walker said. “It had its birth in Brigham City. The Christensens were the ones that brought it to Ballet West.”
“This weekend, we will have live ballerinas in some of the windows of the downtown businesses,” Walker said. “Every third Friday evening we have live music playing and we’ve asked the merchants to stay open a little longer to bring people downtown.”
Walker has a stake in the success of the Historic Downtown Alliance. He owns a couple of businesses on the main street in Brigham.
Monica Holdaway, the Box Elder Chamber of Commerce CEO, said they welcome things like the Nutcracker Festival.
“We support our Main Street community and anything that brings people to town,” she said. “The next big thing is on Saturday, Nov. 25. The Kiwanis Club will bring Santa Claus to Brigham City riding on a fire truck.”
Children will be able to talk to Santa and tell him what they want for Christmas.
The Christmas Village grand opening will follow Santa’s arrival in the evening at the Bill of Rights Plaza, located at 20 North Main, adjacent to the Box Elder County Courthouse. Santa will turn on the lights of the village. The village features elves at work in little houses.
Also that weekend will be the Jingle Bell Bash. Merchants will have a Reindeer Round-up where downtown merchants will have a reindeer in their stores for people to find between 11 a.m. until 3 p.m. Businesses have different prizes for finding the reindeer.