By Jill Vejnoska

The Atlanta Journal-Constitution

It boasts a Christmas tree that grows ginormous before audience members’ eyes in one scene. Flowers and a fairy named Sugar Plum that frolick in another. Plus, an army of saber-wielding mice marching into battle.

Seriously, what’s not to love about “The Nutcracker?”

Uh, try finding out you’re dancing in it.

And you’re not a dancer.

“Hold on, hold on, wait a second!” CNN anchor Tony Harris yelped in his best “breaking news!” voice one recent afternoon at the Georgia Ballet’s headquarters in Marietta. But instead of dramatic videotape of a mudslide or some high-speed traffic chase knocking Harris for a loop, it was the sight of Cobb County commissioner Tim Lee executing a complex dance move. Turning to no one in particular, Harris lamented, “What have I gotten myself into here?”

That would be this evening’s “A Dancing Duet: An Evening in Support of Dance and Families,” at the Jennie T. Anderson Theatre at the Cobb Civic Center. In this one-time special production of “The Nutcracker,” four local celebrities — the others are Southern Polytechnic State University president Lisa Rossbacher and renowned chef/cookbook author Johnnie Gabriel — will hoof it alongside professionals. Capping off a long weekend of traditional “Nutcracker” performances by the Georgia Ballet, the glittering event is a joint fund-raiser for the dance company and the Center for Family Resources.

The parallels between plié-happy Georgia Ballet and the poverty-fighting CFR run deep. Both Marietta-based nonprofits are marking their 50th anniversaries, having endured through recessions, wars and — in the ballet’s case — the Disco Era.

“We thought that was something worth celebrating together with a good neighbor,” said Georgia Ballet executive director Michele Ziemann-DeVos, taking a break from helping ballet master Janusz Mazon put the celebrities through their paces in the opening act. Purchasers of $75 “Angel Section” tickets will be feted tonight at a glitzy reception following what Ziemann-DeVos cheekily describes as “our own version of ‘Dancing With the Stars.’”

That version has grown by leaps and bounds since the Georgia Ballet welcomed its first celebrity nondancer two years ago. Marietta City Councilman Van Pearlberg won a walk-on role in a charity drawing (actually, his wife and friends pooled their resources to tilt the odds in his favor); it went over so well that the concept was expanded last year to feature six local luminaries, spread across three separate performances, appearing in the party scene.

Tonight’s celebrity corps is smaller, but will play a larger, more prominent role than ever. It’s the first time all the guest dancers are appearing together in the same show.

Enter, not a moment too soon, the professionals.

Each one of the amateurs is paired with a veteran ballet dancer in a high-profile number that significantly raises the bar on what was expected of previous years’ celebrities.

“You feel like you have a guide cheering you on,” Rossbacher said of Beau Foister, a 15-year Georgia Ballet veteran, with whom she spent the first 75-minute rehearsal learning a complicated sequence that includes quick-steps, half-moon turns, a lift and more. Just as crucial, Rossbacher, a geologist who trained in NASA’s astronaut program in the 1980s, confided, “Beau was very good at helping me remember which foot to start with.”

Rossbacher and her celebrity cohorts all said it was impossible to say no to such a good cause — no matter how much their egos or feet could get bruised in the process. And while there may be no such thing as bad publicity — Lee plans to run for Cobb Commission chairman next year — surely there are easier ways to get your name out there.

No matter how much, er, pleasure it gives to your loved ones.

“My kids are telling everyone I’m going to be dancing in tights,” Harris, the father of a 14-year-old boy and 11-year-old girl, said with a dramatic sigh. “My friends are teasing me mercilessly, asking, ‘So, do you get to pick the color of your tutu?’”

Alas, Harris and Lee will be sporting tuxes tonight while Rossbacher and Gabriel will wear long skirts. Yet watching them rehearse, you almost get the feeling it wouldn’t have mattered if they’d made them all dress like the Sugar Plum Fairy.

Maybe it was the moment when Lee pounded the floor in frustration after finishing a move a half-beat late, or when Rossbacher retreated to the back of the room with Foister to practice her turns numerous times. Maybe it was when Harris stripped down to a T-shirt because he’d worked up such a sweat or when the celebs all clustered like football players around their “coach,” Mazon, to study a bit of choreography he’d sketched out on a pad. At some point, it became abundantly clear: Get a bunch of accomplished, Type A personalities in the same room — even one with a wall that’s all mirrors and where leotarded tykes occasionally poke their heads in to watch — and they’re all determined to master the task at hand.

“It’s amazing that these people who have no experience can come in here and pull this off,” said Sam Hensley Jr., a son of the Georgia Ballet’s legendary founder, Iris Hensley, and the chairman of its board of trustees. “Basic steps these are not.”

Tell that to the local notables who already are lining up for future shots at dancing. There’s a waiting list for next year, said Ziemann-DeVos, who would say only that the interested guest dancers work in the fields of “education and television.”

As for this year’s batch, who knows how far they could go?

Quipped a tired, but clearly jazzed Rossbacher after the rehearsal :“If Hollywood and ‘Dancing With the Stars’ calls, I’m taking Beau with me.”