Whiz Kid: Gia DiLisio

One of the great holiday traditions is seeing a performance of The Nutcracker, and recently, Swampscott’s Gia Dilisio took the stage to perform in the holiday classic as a member of the Northeast Youth Ballet. 

DiLisio is a fifth grader at the .

Hundreds of people jammed the Lynn Memorial Auditorium earlier this month to see DiLisio and the rest of the cast dance their way through the story of Clara, a young girl in Germany in 1835 who makes her way to a magical palace of sugary sweets in a winter wonderland.

The Swampscott 11-year-old had a number of roles in the performance, and was nervous the first few times she took the stage, but now she takes each role and each show in stride.

“I was nervous at first, for sure,” Gia said. “Now I’m more relaxed and I’m focused on the audience, are they going to laugh, are they going to cry, I know that they’re watching me, but I’m much more relaxed now than when I first started.”

"I'm not nervous at all anymore, I'm just hoping for a good audience, that they enjoy the show," Gia said.

Gia lives on Morton Hill Avenue with her mother and father, her older sister Gillian, a senior at Swampscott High School, and her younger brother Danny, who’s 9.

Gia and Danny both spend a lot of time at the baseball fields on Forest Avenue, Danny played for the Cubs last season and Gia played for the Braves softball team, and spent the year behind the plate as the team’s catcher.

“I like it, it’s a lot of fun, I like playing with my friends and being with my friends, that’s why I like softball,” Gia said. “One day we had tryouts and I tried catcher and I really liked it, so that’s why I play catcher.

Gia’s got to be careful about the foul balls because she also loves to play the piano. Gia’s uncle Paul was a goalie for the Big Blue hockey team back in the late 1970’s.

The DiLisio family is members of St. John’s Church and Gia is an altar server, helping the priests during masses.

“We help the priests during services, we bring up the gifts, we used to ring the bells, but we don’t anymore,” Gia said.  “This is my first year as an altar server.”

“At school I realy like Language Arts and Math, Social Studies and Science aren’t my favorites, but I try hard to do well in those classes,” Gia said. “I just feel I’m more creative when I’m working in Language Arts, and Math is so much fun, that’s why I like them.”

Gia had three roles in the Nutcracker, she played a party girl, a party boy and a cookie, and she threw herself into each role and loved every one.

“Party girl was the most demanding of the three roles, but it was fun to be a cookie because of the costumes,” Gia said. “I enjoy the costumes and the make-up and playing different roles.”

“I’ve been on stage in front of fifty people and close to a thousand people, it’s such a thrill to be on stage and get a reaction from the audience, it’s wonderful,” Gia said.

DiLisio has been with the Northeast Youth Ballet for four years, and loves to give her best every time she performs.

“I’d like to do Cinderella some time, I’d like that,” Gia said.

For more information about Northeast Youth Ballet, please visit their website at www.northeastyouthballet.org or call (781) 665-2236.