Bigger shoes to fill as sisters step up

A dance school production of The Nutcracker this weekend will be like stepping back in time for one Tauranga family.
In the late 1990s, 5-year-old Kathryn Esterman and her sister Claire, 4, performed as a mouse and a candy cane in the Yvonne Edwards School of Dance production of The Nutcracker.
More than a decade later, the sisters are performing in the same production - but this time they are playing two of the lead roles.
Kathryn, now 17, is the Snow Queen, while Claire, 15, plays the Sugar Plum Fairy and the Rat Queen.
The sisters remember the earlier production well. It was Claire's first show, and Kathryn can still recall the start of her dance as a mouse.
"We had to hide in the wings and jump out. I remember being very excited."
And Claire remembers watching the girl who played the Sugar Plum Fairy "and thinking 'wow"'.
The sisters, who are Tauranga Girls' College students, have been dancing with Yvonne Edwards School of Dance ever since.
The school holds its productions every second year, but this is the first time The Nutcracker has been staged since.
For the girls' mother, Penny, rehearsals for the show have been a blast from the past.
"It's really funny - these littlies who are about 4 come racing down the corridor and they have almost identical costumes [to what the girls had]. I was in a little bit of a time warp."
The sisters are passionate about dance and practise almost every day after school.
Rehearsals for The Nutcracker have run for an entire term, including three-hour practices each Wednesday and Thursday and a few marathon four-hour weekend sessions.
Although the girls perform ballet in The Nutcracker, they also both dance in contemporary, jazz and hiphop style.
Their younger sister Grace also dances, while younger brother William prefers rock climbing.
Kathryn, who is in Year 12, and Claire, Year 11, are not sure what the future holds but they know dance will be part of it.
"I can't imagine not doing it," Kathryn said.
And Claire added: "I don't think I would be able to not dance. It's always going to be there."
Yvonne Edwards said the girls were one of 12 sets of sisters in the production but the Estermans have been at the school the longest.
A cast of more than 100 students brings the traditional Christmas ballet story to life onstage, to the music of Tchaikovsky.
The Nutcracker will be presented by Yvonne Edwards School of Dance at Baycourt Theatre on Saturday, with performances at 2pm and 7pm. Tickets from Baycourt TicketDirect.