Tag: Nutcracker

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‘The Nutcracker’ Returns, With New Guidelines for Kids

‘The Nutcracker’ Returns, With New Rules for Children

“Our ultimate goal is of course to try that everyone – both the students on stage and the audience in the theater – can see not just our ‘Nutcracker’ production, but everything we do this year”, said Jeffrey J. Bentley, the executive director of the ballet.

In Kansas City, “Nutcracker” is a tradition that goes back more than three decades, although it was canceled last year along with productions across the country. Parents with young children said they were disappointed not to be able to attend again this year.

Adam Travis, an accountant in Kansas City, was hoping to take his two daughters, 9 and 4 years old, who are taking ballet lessons, to the show. The production has a family tradition: You dress up, go out to dinner and sit in the same seats every year.

“It was a disappointment,” said Travis. “We’re just beginning to get back to normal.”

In New York and other major cities where auditioning for the Nutcracker is highly competitive, kids under 12 are likely to be disappointed to miss another opportunity to appear on the show. Many spend years waiting for a chance to perform in it, and it is a rite of passage for aspiring dancers. Instead, the focus this year is on young dancers, who are often overshadowed by their younger, more squirrel-like colleagues in production.

“There are parents who have an 8 year old, a 9 year old, a 10 year old who know this is the window for their child to be in The Nutcracker,” said Stafford of the City Ballet . “It’s going to be tough and they have to work it through with their children, who will also be disappointed that they won’t get a chance this year.”

Despite the added vigilance, many dancers said they were excited to get back on stage.

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Evaluate: This ‘Nutcracker’ Is a Fantasy You Can Enter

Review: This ‘Nutcracker’ Is a Fantasy You Can Enter

You may have seen the “Nutcracker” countless times. It might be a holiday tradition to see it every year. But have you ever been inside

This weekend, I was standing in front of a house I had never been to before, but familiar music made it seem like a place I’d known for a long time. Then the door opened and I went straight to the ballet.

This dreamy experience – and how it’s sustained – is the great performance of The Nutcracker at Wethersfield, which BalletCollective is running through December 23rd at the Wethersfield Estate in Amenia, NY. (The production is also streamed for free on his website December 23-26.)

Wethersfield is a find. A red brick Georgian house with antique drawing rooms surrounded by formal gardens and complemented with a big top. It’s a near-perfect “nutcracker” set. Or more than a set: the place you always imagined, a fantasy that you can enter.

This particular achievement is linked to a more fundamental one. Most, if not all, of the living “Nutcrackers” in the area have been canceled, including the one most important to the cast of this production. Its artistic director and choreographer Troy Schumacher and almost all of his 23 dancers are members of the New York City Ballet, whose benchmark Balanchine production they will not perform this year. (A 2019 recording will be broadcast on Marquee TV through January 3rd.)

However, during the pandemic, a haunted “nutcracker” is possible on a remote property. During this carefully designed operation, masked guests group themselves in seven to eight socially distant pods, self-selected groups of two to six people. I say “guests” because you can’t exactly buy tickets. Pandemic restrictions don’t allow that. Instead, underwriters who contribute at least $ 5,000 are invited to bring a group. Forty percent of the slots are offered for free to local nonprofits and key workers – and some critics like me, so we can tell the story.

A more intimate “nutcracker,” this is a pared-down one in some ways. For the opening party scene, it’s just the core family – mom and dad, Fritz and Marie (played by adults) – plus an avuncular Drosselmeyer with a gift for magic and three pods from audience members huddling in the corners. However, it is remarkable how much is preserved: the cozy atmosphere, two dance toys, four giant mice.

The Tchaikovsky music is played, but some guests experience an interlude in an ornate room in which violinist Lauren Cauley plays a piece by the composer “Sleeping Beauty” (in a new electroacoustic arrangement by Darian Donovan Thomas). It’s a nice addition to the party and also part of the not-entirely-flawless pace and spacing – it occupies the first few guests while later arrivals see a repeat of the opening section. In places where the process comes to a standstill, you can observe and admire the still impressive mechanism.

If you peer through the windows from the outside, you will witness bedtime and the arrival of the mice. Each target group sees a different point of view. In my case, all of the actors – Drosselmeyer, the father, a mouse – couldn’t resist playing around with a chess board as if they had all seen “The Queen’s Gambit”.

Most of the fresh specialties are like this: small, sweet. The human-sized nutcracker crosses swords with the mouse king in a courtyard and scares him instead of killing him and without the help of Marie. But then we follow the nutcracker in amazement.

At the edge of an oval pool, in the distance we watch a wonderfully framed “waltz of snowflakes”, whose dancers give their best on a grassy slope. We follow topiary paths strewn with fairy lights into the tent, where a table is set for each capsule, on which are fake and untouchable delicacies.

In the middle there is a stage, which means that you can dance properly. most of the usual diversions from Act II – minus “coffee” and “tea” and their ethnically stereotypical pitfalls. Mr. Schumacher’s choreography is appropriate and skilfully meets the challenge of an in-the-round staging with occasional bliss, but without any real magic.

The dancing was good too, up to the standards of the city ballet but not the heights of the city ballet. As can happen in the Balanchine production, the Sugarplum Fairy (Ashley Laracey, who takes turns with Sara Mearns) was outshone by Dewa, Mira Nadon, who shone with amplitude and ballerina authority amid eight waltz flowers.

But while part of the goal of this production is to get members of a great company dancing again, it’s not really about great choreography or great dancing. It’s also not really about the whole Nutcracker story, some of which is left behind in favor of the trip. After we leave the house, we never see Marie and her family again. It’s like we’ve become them.

This transformation is the real magic of this solution to a pandemic problem. What I found most moving was the pantomime with which the dancers and some ushers led us through the ballet. This was danced with kind permission, a warm welcome and, like the setting, it took me right into the heart of a ballet that luckily I hadn’t missed.

The Nutcracker in Wethersfield

Until December 23 at Wethersfield Estate, Amenia, NY; and streaming 23.-26. December, nutcrackeratwethersfield.com.

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‘The Nutcracker’: Sugarplum Desires Below the Palm Timber in Miami

'The Nutcracker': Sugarplum Dreams Under the Palm Trees in Miami

Lourdes Lopez, the artistic director of the Miami City Ballet, faces a new stranger. It’s a fear she never had. And it emphasizes them.

“I just hope they don’t close us at the last minute,” she said.

Unsurprisingly, she wondered what it was like to run a ballet company in London during the Blitz. Against the odds of a pandemic, the company will be unveiling its revamped production of George Balanchine’s The Nutcracker this month. Usually, Ms. Lopez said, her worries would be more like: will the costumes be ready? Will an injured dancer recover in time to perform?

Now she is thinking about the backstage choreography of the crew and the dancers, since masks are not worn during performances. “We have to make sure that nobody is in this wing when they leave,” she said. “We have to find out what to do with masks until the last moment.”

“The Nutcracker” is more than a popular vacation staple. For ballet companies across the country, it’s a financial lifeline that supports the repertoire for the rest of the year. This year, most of the productions have been relegated to virtual offerings, but Miami has something that some other cities like New York don’t have: warm weather on the holidays.

The company’s production of the 1954 classic by Balanchine already shows an abundance of colors and warmth. In 2017 it was redesigned in Miami with designs and costumes by Isabel and Ruben Toledo and projections by Wendall K. Harrington. (Details include dazzling pastel dots on the Sugarplum Fairy’s tutu and a pineapple throne.)

And now it is being overhauled again for the outdoors. The ballet, titled “George Balanchine’s The Nutcracker in the Park,” is performed outside in Downtown Doral Park and features a combination of live action and new digital animation by Ms. Harrington and new artwork by Mr. Toledo. (Isabel, the fashion designer who created her imaginative costumes, died last year.)

The Miami City Ballet’s production, as Ms. Lopez noted, is a real community effort. “Think of a hospital, a government agency, a real estate investment firm, and a ballet firm that somehow come to the table,” she said. “Never in my wildest dreams would I have ever thought of it.”

She hadn’t planned this to happen. “It’s not because I’m a visionary,” said Ms. Lopez. “It was just opportunities that came up and, frankly, they came from a ‘What can we do? ‘It’s so dark out there and it’s our – or mine – responsibility to figure something out for the dancers and the audience. “

It was Ms. Harrington who suggested to Ms. Lopez over the summer that the company present a “Nutcracker”. Their idea was to beam it on electronic billboards in Florida. “It would be for the people because I’m an old hippie,” said Ms. Harrington. “Needless to say, it wasn’t possible because it would have been free.”

But she insisted. “I mean, I’m not like the biggest fan of ‘The Nutcracker’ in the world, but I know about its healing effects,” she said. “And now we need a little Christmas, as the song says.”

When she heard they could use an outside space, things started to come together. The Doral Park, where the ballet is performed, is part of a mixed-use development by Codina Partners, whose executive director is Ana-Marie Codina Barlick, a former president of the Miami City Ballet Board. “We have a large residential component,” said Ms. Codina Barlick. “So we’re literally giving them a unit to wash tights with a washer and dryer between shows.”

The company has partnered with a health partner, Baptist Health South Florida, and adheres to a rigorous testing and safety protocol. Masked spectators sit in socially distant pods, each of which offers space for up to four people. The break has been shortened to five minutes – more of a break – and the idea is to get people in and out efficiently.

Ms. Lopez attributed early action the Miami City Ballet organization took when the coronavirus forced a shutdown in March. A Covid Task Force was quickly formed, which resulted in an industrial hygienist being hired to examine the studios for safety.

“They gave us an 82-page report,” she said. “The nice thing about it is that they were able to use the room dimensions and the calculations from the air flow to determine how many dancers, students or individuals can safely train in a studio or in an office.”

Ms. Lopez was able to hold the school’s summer course for five weeks in July – a personal indoor program for 100 students. “We bit our nails because Florida was a fiery state in July,” she said. “And we haven’t had a single case in those five weeks. We sent the staff home. You couldn’t get into the building if you weren’t part of the school or faculty.

“And so there was a real feeling that we could do this, that we knew how to do it safely in the building. That’s how it really started. “

As Downtown Doral Park became available, Ms. Harrington refocused her thinking. The new idea was to recreate the ballet with additional projections to compensate for fewer dancers on stage. The roles of children, who normally play a prominent role in Act 1, have been scaled back significantly. Together with Marie and the Prince, Act 2 shows eight children in the variant “Hoops or the Candy Cane”. and eight polichinelles emerging from under Mother Ginger’s skirt.

“I had to look through the ballet and figure out how to continue storytelling without the number of people you want on the party scene and fight scene and try to glue it all together,” Ms. Harrington said. “I recorded the scenery and incorporated it into projections.”

A big change is an overture after Act 2 instead of the small children who normally play angels. To do this, she created a trip from the snow scene that ends Act 1 to the beach “because it’s Miami,” Ms. Harrington said. “I wanted to do this for the show anyway because I’m distracted by Act 2. I am a theater person. I always try to connect the dots. “

She was always amazed at the sudden change in environment, from the snow scene in Act 1 to the tropical candy land in Act 2. “It was snowy and now there’s a pineapple on stage,” she said. “How did you get there? I’m confused! Look, it’s the Nutcracker too – it’s very 19th century in its style. And we updated it with Ruben and Isabel’s beautiful designs. So it was mine.” Reach to fill the gaps. “

For this outdoor version, Mr. Toledo “built some new frames,” she said. “It’s a little trippy. Ruben made a gorgeous watercolor beach. “

In his pictures, said Mr Toledo, Marie and the Prince “float south on a flock of migratory birds that form a magical, spinning spiral vortex tunnel that turns into angels, orchids, tropical fruits, dolphins and more,” he added ” Deliver us to the soft, sandy front of Miami Beach. “

Rehearsals took place in the mornings and afternoons to prepare for the dancers’ performance. For security reasons, the 50-person company was split into two parts. But before anything started, Ms. Lopez suggested the idea to the dancers and said to them: “I can only do this if I have all of you support, because we are all responsible for one another. So think about it. ‘But they – and dancers everywhere – understand that time is not their friend. “

The director Katia Carranza, who will dance the Sugarplum Fairy, will not lose that. The pandemic has given her a new sense of gratitude for her job. “We value three things in being in the studios and rehearsing and having these experiences,” she said. “I know we may feel like we’ve lost a year of dancing, but I try to take it like I’ve learned other things. I have the opportunity to teach online. I have the opportunity to be with myself. We have to see it that way. “

Of course, changes in thinking are necessary right now. Ms. Lopez said she had no idea what Balanchine, who she danced for with the New York Ballet, would think of her outdoor version of his classic. “I would hope he says, ‘Good for you: you give hope to your dancers, you bring hope to people for Christmas, you make it as safe as possible.'”

But it is Mrs. Toledo who is really on her mind. Last December, Ms. Lopez visited a memorial to her in New York. The program was tied with a piece of red string. Mrs Lopez kept it in her office. “When that ‘nutcracker’ happened I opened the door and some papers flew out of my office and one of them was the one with the red string,” she said. “I figured I just need something from her, so I wrapped this red cord around my wrist. In all honesty, the idea of ​​being able to do this for her is another driving force for me, more than Balanchine. “

It is clear that this is more than just another show. Ms. Harrington, who lives in Washingtonville, NY, cancels her Christmas plans with her family. She won’t have enough time to quarantine after her trip to Miami.

However, since it was primarily her idea, she said she was fine “taking one for the team”. And the way she sees it, dance is the body.

“It’s in the room with it,” she said. “So I felt this could be a thrill. I hope i am right. I believe in theater and the arts like other people believe in God, and I just need that to happen. I didn’t care if I did. I only needed it to happen. “

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‘Nutcracker’ in Could? The Virus Postpones a Christmas Custom

‘Nutcracker’ in May? The Virus Postpones a Christmas Tradition

CHICAGO – In the world of amateur ballet, each year has a familiar rhythm. Ballet academies hold auditions for The Nutcracker in the fall, and as winter approaches, the young dancers learn how to be toy soldiers, angels, or mice. Just before Christmas, when the ballet takes place, it is time to perform.

This year, with the pandemic, many ballet schools have given up the tradition entirely. But an academy in downtown Chicago owned by two Russian ballet teachers who ran the Joffrey Academy of Dance for years decided to find a way to assemble a “Nutcracker” – no matter how complicated it got.

Young ballerinas wore masks on their faces and numbers on their jerseys and played at the A&A Ballet Academy in September. Alexei Kremnev and Anna Reznik, the owners of the school, set out to create a “nutcracker” for a socially distant age: they shrank the line-up, cut off the partnership, cut production to avoid interruptions, and swore, only about 7 percent of the plays sell seats. They persevered even if a young dancer had a confirmed case of Covid-19 and had two other symptoms and moved the samples to Zoom for some time.

Then, about two weeks before the reduced throng of parents and grandparents were due to arrive for the scheduled performances, a spate of Covid cases caused the state to close all theaters again.

Unimpressed, Mr. Kremnev and Ms. Reznik came up with a simple solution: Why not postpone “Nutcracker” to May if they hope that there will be fewer restrictions?

The idea of ​​moving the most Christmassy ballet into spring may seem unsettling. Set on Christmas Eve, “The Nutcracker” usually features a towering Christmas tree and dancing snowflakes, making it an annual holiday tradition around the world. But Mr. Kremnev and Mrs. Reznik don’t see why it has to be that way. After all, Handel’s “Messiah”, the ultimate Christmas Oratorio, was originally considered Easter music.

And ballet companies have not always limited their “Nutcracker” performances to the Christmas season, especially in the Soviet Union and Russia, where the ballet with its glorious Tchaikovsky score premiered in St. Petersburg in 1892. During this very first performance in December, when a new “Nutcracker” production was being assembled in what was then Leningrad in 1934, the premiere was in February. And in March 1966, the Bolshoi Ballet in Moscow unveiled a new production.

“For them it was just another ballet – and not the most successful ballet,” said Jennifer Fisher, dance historian and author of Nutcracker Nation. “Once it’s planted here in San Francisco in 1944 and in New York in 1954, it becomes an annual production, always at Christmas.”

Even in the US it wasn’t always limited to winter: in 1977 Mikhail Baryshnikov’s “Nutcracker” was performed for the American Ballet Theater in May after a more traditional world premiere in Washington, New York in December.

Mr. Kremnev and Ms. Reznik said that when they lived in Russia it was customary to play “Nutcrackers” throughout the season, usually September to May, so this year’s shift doesn’t feel strange to them.

“It was a repertoire like ‘Spartacus’ or ‘Swan Lake’ or ‘Sleeping Beauty’,” said Kremnev.

In May, when the temperature rises and, with a bit of luck, the virus subsides, the dancers from A&A Ballet, their furry mouse suits, their Tricorn soldiers’ hats, and the weirdly large skirt of Mother Ginger can break out – assuming the theaters in Chicago it is allowed to reopen.

For Mr. Kremnev (50) and Ms. Reznik (52), who are married, reopening their studio in the summer was a challenge in itself. It was often difficult to determine where classes and rehearsals fit into the state’s gradual reopening plan. (Is a ballet academy more of a fitness class or a camp?) However, they ran an intensive program in their studio in July, and a city inspector visited the program to make sure the program was in line with state guidelines.

When it came time for their “Art Deco Nutcracker” set in 1920s America, the couple were keen to keep the show operating by rules designed to stop its spread. In September no more than 10 artists could rehearse at the same time. They planned a cast of around 75 dancers, half the size of the usual. And they would only occupy about 7 percent of the 725 seats in the Studebaker Theater, which would be anything but a financial success.

Then there were the changes to the ballet itself. Mr. Kremnev, who choreographed “The Art Deco Nutcracker” in 2017, removed all partnerships and close contacts between the young dancers. The Sugarplum Fairy could no longer dance the pas de deux with her Cavalier, and the trio of Russian dancers performing in the second act could no longer embrace each other.

During rehearsals, the ballet teachers could no longer bring the dancers’ bodies into the correct positions.

“Usually they’re very handy,” said Grace Curry, a 17-year-old dancer who plays both Clara and the Sugarplum Fairy in a variety of lineups. “They move your leg where they want, they put your foot in the right position. But this year they couldn’t. “

The dancers, ages 4 to 24, were disappointed with the sudden cancellation of the show, but Mr. Kremnev and Ms. Reznik were relatively unimpressed.

Her production of “Nutcracker” isn’t really about the performances or the ticket revenue. It’s about getting the students in the studio to train, learn the choreography and learn to perform in sync with the others.

“It really doesn’t matter if we do it,” said Ms. Reznik. “I always tell my students that everything we do in the studio can be used for the future.”

But they will assure the dancers and their families that they intend to make “Nutcrackers” a Christmas tradition – in 2021.