The Nutcracker

Tita Boulger, founder and director of Peninsula School of Performing Arts, has a well-known reputation, having taught dance in the South Bay area for over 40 years.

Growing up in Palos Verdes, Tita attended Malaga Cove school and Palos Verdes Peninsula High School. She married her high school sweetheart, with whom she has now been together for 53 years. Tita started dancing at one-and-a-half years old. With her father being a singer and her mother being a dancer, Tita said that ballet has always been in her blood. Tita began teaching dance at age 16 in 1985.

The pandemic interrupted Tita’s teaching career, but did not end it. She managed to host Zoom dance classes for six months in 2020. Tita then transitioned to hybrid learning, offering both in-person and online classes for her pupils. After being out for nearly two years, this winter show will mark Tita’s 32nd Nutcracker performance and the first since 2018. She boasted four sold out shows for the weekend following Thanksgiving.”I am so happy to be back in the theater,” Tita said. “It is a celebration to be on the stage. There is nothing quite like a live performance, it is so fantastic.”

The Peninsula School of Performing Arts has grown immensely since its opening in September of 1985. The two original schools were located in Lunada Bay and Miraleste. When the Miraleste location closed, Tita opened a studio in the Peninsula Center. The Peninsula Center and Lunada Bay locations serve as staples in this community, with 19 teachers leading classes in ballet, tap, jazz and conditioning. Tita estimates that she has taught between 5,000 and 10,000 students throughout her career, with some dancing in Broadway shows, The Rockettes and Broadway touring companies.

Recently, one of her former dancers who performed in one of Tita’s first shows ever visited from San Francisco to watch the Nutcracker. Tita said she loves to watch her students grow and it is always a pleasure to see some of her alumni return to the studio year after year. “You can never create an advanced dancer unless they come back and grow,” Tita said.

The Spring Ballet is the next item on the agenda for Tita. Sleeping Beauty will be held in May 2022 at the Norris Theater.