On Saturday, Dec. 10, and Sunday, Dec. 11, the North Carolina State Ballet and Charlotte Blume School of Dance will present "The Nutcracker" at the Crown Theater at 3 p.m.

“We’ve changed bits and pieces of our choreography to add some excitement and fun [this year],” Dina Lewis, Charlotte Blume's Studio Manager, said.

Charlotte Blume’s Nutcracker is the “oldest grandfathered production” at the Crown Theater.

“It’s fun. We’ve been rehearsing all summer,” Lewis said. “Right now it’s a seven-day-a-week job, and we can’t wait to get this thing on stage.”

Originally from Texas, Charlotte Blume started the school in the mid-1950s, bringing artistic professionalism to the Fayetteville region by teaching ballet, her own top-flight training pedigree and her insistence on high standards and authenticity.

“The dance studio is [the] Charlotte Blume School of Dance, but we also have a ballet company,” Lewis said. “North Carolina State Ballet ... and it’s been around forever.”

According to the dance studio, no other local dance studio used mirrors or bars before Blume's arrival.

“We are as close to a pre-professional company as you can get without going professional,” Lewis said.

For many, participating in Blume’s productions and studying at her studio has helped win admission to top colleges. She taught Fayetteville’s prominent families as well as the less fortunate. Within the studio, all were treated equally.

The Charlotte Blume School of Dance presents more of a traditional Nutcracker than other productions in the area.

Blume’s absolute devotion to merit made her somewhat of a de facto civil rights pioneer. In Fayetteville, the first students were Black. White families quietly boycotted her integrated operation until their daughters insisted that they, too, wanted to receive the finest instruction.

In the South, Blume welcomed white and Black students equally. There was never any question that they would learn together in the same classes and that the prime dancing parts would go to those students who worked hard and showed talent.

Blume passed away in 2016, but the studio continues to produce similar, traditional ballet studios with "classically-trained students."

"If you go to New York and you’ve seen our production, you’ll see something very similar,” Lewis said.

“All of the girls you see on stage are literally working seven days a week to prepare for this Nutcracker performance, Lewis said.

Tickets are $25 and can be purchased at the Crown Complex Box Office or online at CrownComplexNC.com.

“We’re different than other dance studios in Fayetteville,” Lewis said. “I’m very firm, and the girls are so precious because they know my motto: it’s ‘we,’ not ‘me.’”

Charlotte Blume is located at 1312 Morganton Road, “literally in the heart of Haymount.” For more information, visit BlumeSchoolOfDance.com or www.facebook.com/charlotteblumeschoolofdance.

“[Ballet] is a dying art,” Lewis said. “There’s a lot of reverence for that stage, [and] we teach the girls that you have to respect each other ... the stage, and when you hit it, you’re going to nail it every single time.”