Tiffany Swan, the executive director of Panama City Ballet, has discovered that it takes a village to revive a holiday tradition in a post-hurricane town.

“The Civic Center is still gone, the Martin Theatre is gone, the dance studios and the symphony are performing at high schools,” Swan said, adding that the lack of venues meant touring troupes that once brought shows to town have no stages large enough for their productions. “It’s really sad, and a community cannot thrive without the arts.”

Swan established the 501(c)3 nonprofit Panama City Ballet as a way to organize a production of “The Nutcracker” that would bring together several different dance studios. She purchased many costumes from an Alabama-based troupe, but others would require the talents of sewists.

Enter the students of Project Runway, a recognized club for sewing enthusiasts at FSU Panama City. Club secretary Alexis Taylor is studying Crime Scene Investigation, and one of her professors is Swan’s spouse. When Taylor heard about the ballet’s need, she floated the idea of helping with costumes to club President Justine Sowell.

“Project Runway has all these resources,” said Sowell, who also has studied dance at a local studio. “I really like to do community projects, so today we’re making mouse pants.”

On Nov. 2, students gathered with Swan in the FSU PC Digital Design Studio to sort materials and begin work at a group of sewing machines encircling a table in the center of the studio. Their first project was to make trousers for the “mouse” soldiers who harry the Nutcracker’s regiment. Other costuming projects will follow as needed.

“Every time I say ‘Nutcracker,’ people are like, ‘we used to go to that every year,’” Swan said. “As I started learning about the history of the ‘Nutcracker’ in Panama City, I realized it had never been presented with only local talent.”

The Panama City Marina Civic Center hosted “The Great Russian Nutcracker,” performed by a touring troupe from Russia, each holiday season for many years. The Civic Center remains closed after it was severely damaged by Hurricane Michael in 2018.

Panama City Ballet will present “The Nutcracker”—featuring only local dancers—at the Arnold High School auditorium in Panama City Beach Dec. 8-10. In advance of the show, FSU Panama City will host a “Nutcracker” themed children’s tea party and an afternoon lecture about the ballet on Dec. 2. The lecture, from 3:30-5 p.m. in the Holley Academic Center, is free and open to the public as part of the university’s Illumination series, while the tea party is a ticketed event to raise funds for Panama City Ballet’s production. For details and tickets, visit PanamaCityBallet.com.