By Caitlin Conrad

CARMEL-BY-THE-SEA, Calif. (KSBW) -- The start of the holiday season would normally be the time to buy your tickets to see a live performance of the Nutcracker but under covid-19 restrictions those shows can't go on. Local non-profits and dance studios are pivoting to taped performances this year with plans to show them at Drive-In movie theaters on the Central Coast.

Just about everyone has suffered the cancellation of a favorite event in 2020 and for ballerinas its the Nutcracker. To some it may seem like a small loss, but for dancers who have worked all their lives towards being cast in a principal role like the sugar plum fairy it's crushing.

"When I heard we weren't able to do nutcracker this year I was pretty sad because I was excited to see what role I would do this year," said Sage Beutler a dancer with Monterey Peninsula Ballet Theater.

Beutler is a junior in high school and she knows she only has one more year left to be cast in her most desired role. This year instead of playing a part in the Nutcracker, the dancer will have a solo in a Winter Medley put on by MPBT.

Artistic Director Tia Brown knew a live holiday performance with a cast of 250 on stage was off the table this year but she didn't want to let the season pass them by. To keep her most experienced dancers dancing, she put together the Winter Medley program with a smaller cast. The dancers are broken up into small cohorts and their performances were individually taped at the Sunset Center.

"The Nutcracker is usually filmed but this one is going to be more artistic, so there will be more close up shots of people's feet, or people's faces and so you've really got to think about like what you're portraying," said dancer Norah Takehara.

Rehearsals for the Winter Medley began in August and returning to in-person dance classes was a treat for the teens after months of distance learning and zoom ballet. But there have been some adjustments, dancers and teachers have to dance with a masks and as much as they want to dancers can't hug their friends.

"The hardest thing is to be six feet away from them, yeah that is probably the hardest thing," said dancer Cecila Yu.

Yu said it feels unnatural not to greet people and she finds herself having to stop her body from naturally gravitating towards friends she has danced with for years.

Brown said even with the new protocols she's seen a marked difference in her dancers, with some more committed than ever after having to give up their passion for so long.

"Everybody is dealing with things so differently in these covid times but take that into a teenager and rip everything away school, socialization, performing arts, their passion, their love, their sport and this is the one thing that they now have that grounds them," said Brown.

The Winter Medley will debut at the drive-in theater at the Monterey County Fairgrounds on December 5, 2020 afterward there will be a screening of the Christmas movie Elf. The 4:00 p.m. showing is sold out but tickets to the 1:00 p.m. matinee are still available online.

"We are delighted to do this on the same weekend that we would have been normally welcoming our students, our children and our audience to Sunset Center but this is the next best thing," said Brown.

Tickets sales are a fundraiser for MBPT and it hopes to sell-out both shows.