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Growing up with - and in - "The Nutcracker"

The North 103.3 | By Lisa Johnson
Published December 8, 2017 at 1:00 PM CST
Minnesota Ballet

Robert Gardener started his life in dance as a mouse.

A mouse in the perennial holiday favorite The Nutcracker, that is.

Credit Minnesota Ballet

Then, as so many dancers do, he moved up in the ranks of the cast as he gained experience and skill.

Credit Minnesota Ballet

After 25 years in Duluth, over 30 years of dancing Tchaikovsky's lush score and three different productions of Allen Field's choreography, Gardner is the artistic director and ballet master of the Minnesota Ballet.

Credit ©Minnesota Ballet

So where does the man at the pinnacle of the company go for inspiration and ideas?

You guessed it: the mice.
Tags
Arts & Culture Northland Morning InterviewsRobert GardnerMinnesota BalletThe Nutcracker
Lisa Johnson
Lisa Johnson started her broadcast career anchoring the television news at her high school and spinning country music at KWWK/KOLM Radio in Rochester, Minnesota. She was a reporter and news anchor at KTHI in Fargo, ND (not to mention the host of a children's program called "Lisa's Lane") and a radio reporter and anchor in Moorhead, Bismarck, Wahpeton and Fergus Falls.Since 1991, she has hosted Northland Morning on KUMD. One of the best parts of her job includes "paying it forward" by mentoring upcoming journalists and broadcasters on the student news team that helps produce Northland Morning. She also loves introducing the different people she meets in her job to one another, helping to forge new "community connections" and partnerships.Lisa has amassed a book collection weighing over two tons, and she enjoys reading, photography, volunteering with Animal Allies Humane Society and fantasizing about farmland. She goes to bed at 8pm, long before her daughter, two cats, or three dogs.
See stories by Lisa Johnson