The year 2020 has been very challenging for everyone in some form or another, and high school students are certainly no exception.

According to information provided by her family, Parkland High School senior and National Honor Society student, Olivia Lovell, has had her ballet performing path forced into a detour, one in which opportunities may materialize in a different way.

At age 17, Lovell is a preprofessional ballet student who has trained at the Ballet Guild of the Lehigh Valley/Pennsylvania Youth Ballet in Bethlehem for 13 years.

She has been learning and performing the demanding skills necessary to present audiences with the difficult pointe work, leaps, turns and lifts of ballet to appear effortless on stage.

The holiday season presentation of “The Nutcracker,” has delighted young and old for more than a century, and is often the first exposure many have to live performances, music and ballet.

Although many Nutcracker performances across the country have been canceled, the show will go on in a virtual format for the Ballet Guild of the Lehigh Valley/Pennsylvania Youth Ballet, and will be streamed free through school districts across the Lehigh Valley, including Parkland, in addition to a public performance streaming with tickets available to use Dec. 19 through Jan. 1, 2021.

Choreographed and directed by Pennsylvania Youth Ballet Artistic Director Karen Knerr, and featuring principal dancers from Pennsylvania Ballet, Oksana Masolva as the Sugar Plum Fairy and Sterling Baca as the Cavalier, Lovell is performing the role of the Snow Queen, as well as a flower, in a streamed Nutcracker performance from the stage of Zoellner Arts Center at Lehigh University produced by WFMZ-TV/MBC Teleproductions.

The same production company that brings the Freddy Awards, will bring this year’s 52nd production of the Pennsylvania Youth Ballet Nutcracker streamed to Internet capable devices.

In the 12 productions of the Nutcracker that Lovell has performed, she has had the opportunity to dance nearly every role.

Lovell started at the age of 6 as an angel and worked her way up to key roles such as Clara at age 12, followed by Arabian, Dew Drop, and now Snow Queen.

Having spent the past few summers dancing in New York City at American Ballet Theatre summer intensives, her plan after graduation is to audition for professional ballet companies while pursuing a college education.

To watch the Pennsylvania Youth Ballet’s 52nd Production of the “The Nutcracker,” tickets are available for purchase by visiting lehightickets.evenue.net.