Palisadian Dresses Cast for Westside Ballet's "Nutcracker"

For 39 years, Westside Ballet of Santa Monica has staged 'The Nutcracker.' This year's performances, at 1 and 5 p.m., will be held on the weekends of December 3-4 and December 10-11 at the Wadsworth Theatre, 11301 Wilshire Blvd. in Brentwood.Artistic Director Yvonne Mounsey, founder of Westside Ballet of Santa Monica and former principal dancer with New York City Ballet under George Balanchine, will oversee the production.
Westside Ballet, which draws its company from the affiliated Westside Ballet School, will feature Chung-Myung Park and Palisadian Paloma Connolly (a student at Palisades High School) as the Sugarplum Fairy.Pacific Palisades resident Liz Wasynczuk has served as Westside Ballet's wardrobe director for 16 years.
She trained at the former Ebsen School of Ballet in the Palisades, and later became a ballet instructor. While teaching at the Ebsen School, Liz learned how to design and make costumes and caught the attention of Mounsey. Liz started working at Westside Ballet in the mid-1990s, and has made costumes for the crystal bells and the mirlitons, designed the mice costumes and made dewdrop costumes.Her work on 'The Nutcracker' begins in late September.'Once we get the casting information we call the dancers in for the fittings and organize the moms, who volunteer to help with the alterations and fittings,' Liz says. 'Every week we are fitting a different group of kids.Too Old to Wear a Sheer Dress? Costumes have to be altered and cleaned. We are working right up to the very end and through the performances.'
The pace is hectic. 'There are always last-minute costume changes to be made. I work backstage at all the performances and dress rehearsals with volunteers and moms. We have to make quick changes and work carefully, but somehow it always works out.'One of Liz's best memories of working with Yvonne over the years was when Yvonne asked her to design the crystal bells costumes.
'Yvonne called me into her office one day and told me she was creating a new dance in 'The Nutcracker' that she wanted to call the crystal bells. She needed costumes and she wanted me to create them. Yvonne only told me she wanted them to be blue and white, so I made a costume. She's always been very excited and positive when I bring something to her. I've always had a winning ticket with it. I love working with her.'Liz has two children, Steven, 26, and Ilona, 28 (who began ballet lessons at Westside School of Ballet at age 11).