Four Dorchester young ladies from the Boston Ballet School (BBS) are displaying their dancing talents this holiday season in Boston Ballet’s ‘The Nutcracker’ at the Citizens Bank Opera House.

Mairead and Siobhan Manning, Isabella Robbins, and Núria Silva Zongo are performing in Boston Ballet’s “The Nutcracker,” which opened Nov. 25 with performances through Dec. 31.

The Manning sisters have been students at BBS for a year. Mairead is dancing as both a reindeer and Polichinelle while Siobhan is cast in the role of a lamb. Robbins, who has been a student at BBS for six years, is performing as a flower seller as is Nuria.

Mairead is a fifth grader at Boston Collegiate and Siobhan is a third grader at the Dr. William Henderson Inclusion School. Both girls play with Dorchester Youth Soccer and serve as buddies with the Martin Richard Challenger soccer program through the Boys and Girls Clubs of Dorchester (BGCD). The sisters participate in many activities at BGCD, including swimming on the Marr-lins swim team. They also run in the Youth Enrichment Services’ Track program and compete in tournaments through the Her Move Next chess program.

Isabella Robbins, a student at Boston Ballet School for six years, is performing in “The Nutcracker” through Dec. 31.

Robbins is a fifth grader at Saint Brendan School, where she earns high honors and writes for the school newspaper. She has a love for all dance and began taking classes when she was two years old. Besides studying at BBS, she attends Miss. Linda’s School of Dance in Dorchester and the Woods School of Irish Dance in South Boston.

At both schools, she has competed in many different dance forms all over New England. This spring, along with Miss Linda’s School of Dance, she will be performing at Universal Studios.

There isn’t a day of the week when Isabella is not attending a dance class or two, but outside of dance she also enjoys playing ADSL softball, CYO basketball, figure skating, and cheering for her twin brother, Brady.

Núria Silva Zongo, a 7th grader at Boston Latin School, will dance the part of the Flower Seller in Boston Ballet’s “The Nutcracker.”
Photos courtesy Boston Ballet

Nuria, who was born in Portugal, took up English when she came to America five years ago and began studying at BBS in March 2021. A seventh grader at Boston Latin School, where she is a member of the Latin Club, she is learning to play the viola. She loves sports, particularly swimming, thanks to the Murphy School swim team.

All children performing in Nissinen’s “The Nutcracker” are students of Boston Ballet School and Boston Ballet School’s Professional Division at Walnut Hill School for the Arts and are coached by an experienced staff that includes Mikko Nissinen, Children’s Rehearsal Director Dalay Parrondo, and BBS’s faculty.

Students auditioned and began rehearsing for the production in October. As part of this experience, they have earned the opportunity to dance alongside Boston Ballet’s 63 acclaimed professional dancers from around the world.

PNC Bank is the presenting sponsor of this “Nutcracker” production.