For all the dreams of sugarplum fairies and the magic of Christmas floating around this time of year, there’s one story that has brought it all to life onstage for more than a century. The Nutcracker has remained a favorite—albeit elaborate—production for ballet troupes. Every year, little girls dream of dancing the principal roles, and ballet aficionados can’t wait for the production to usher in Christmas.
What’s made the production a standard of the season is its fairytale storyline, elaborate costuming, and joyous musical composition.
These days, you’re hard pressed to find a ballet that doesn’t perform The Nutcracker. Allan Hancock College Youth Dance has been gearing up for its upcoming production.
“I think it’s because it’s a story for a lot of different people,” Director Cynthia Valenzuela said of the show’s popularity. “Clara battles mice and travels to the Land of Sweets, so there’s that story aspect of it, but it’s also
classic ballet that appeals to the adults.”
The story revolves around Clara, who in some productions is called Marie or Masha. Clara receives a nutcracker from her mysterious godfather Herr Drosselmeyer. At midnight, Clara hears the sound of mice and goes to investigate. The nutcracker comes alive and defends Clara from the Mouse King and his soldiers. With the foes defeated, the nutcracker becomes a prince who takes Clara to the Land of Sweets, encountering wondrous things along the way.
Valenzuela said part of the appeal is that it’s the story of a girl who travels to magical lands, battles with mice, and goes from being a cared-for girl to an independent woman.
“I think it’s kind of exciting for a little girl in that regard,” Valenzuela said. “And who doesn’t love fairies and Arabian dancers and Spanish dancers and all that fun stuff?”
The fairy tale ballet composed by Tchaikovsky in 1891 and 1892 is based on the adaptation of the story The Nutcracker and the Mouse King by E.T.A. Hoffman. Tchaikovsky selected eight of the numbers from the ballet before the December 1892 premiere. Those selections became The Nutcracker Suite, which was actually intended for concert performance. The suite was first performed March 19, 1892, at an assembly of the St. Petersburg branch of the Musical Society.
The suite became popular, but the complete ballet didn’t begin to achieve its great notoriety until around the mid 1950s.
And as much as audiences have grown to love it, dancers love it even more.
Just ask Diane Zink, artistic director of Everybody Can Dance and founder of Santa Maria Civic Ballet. Zink’s production—featuring top professional Sayat Asatryan, former principal dancer with the Moscow Kremlin Ballet—wrapped up the weekend after Thanksgiving.
With a 33-member “Snow Scene” and a dazzling “Sugar Plum Grand Pas de Deux,” the production featured high caliber dance and fast-paced choreography with lots of attention to detail.
“I think people love it because the music of Tchaikovsky is endearing and fresh,” Zink said. “Children are involved, and the heroine is a little girl, and it takes place at Christmas so it draws on people’s hearts.”
After 23 years of putting on the production, Zink knows the choreography like the back of her hand, but there are still challenges.
“The technical aspect of the dancing itself is easy, but it’s all the props and the costumes, the costume changes, the growing Christmas tree, the battle, the mice, the cannon that are difficult,” Zink explained.
So many props and such a large cast present other problems, too.
“Having dolls that break and swords that break and having to fix them backstage—a lot of kids got sick this year, and kids were getting sick in the first act and not able to finish the second act, so there was a lot of costume changes and role changes,” Zink said. “But it all goes on backstage. The audience thought it was seamless and wonderful.”
The production does require elaborate costuming, sets, and backdrops. And lots of dancers. Valenzuela’s production boasts 70 to 80 dancers, many of them children.
Working with children in the production presents a challenge as well—not that it isn’t fun, and children are an important part of the show, but they often have a hard time remembering their scenes and envisioning themselves in the larger scene. They start rehearsals in small groups, but when people start dancing around them in later rehearsals, “it can be chaos,” Valenzuela said.
Valenzuela has been director of Youth Dance since 2004, and this is her sixth Nutcracker production. She tries to keep things fresh, but still traditional, especially since many of the younger students dream of dancing the older roles.
“A lot of students see those older roles and can’t wait to do them, so they practice on the side and they know those roles, so you don’t want to them to step into something totally new,” Valenzuela said.
That’s not to say other dance companies do the same. With greater financial resources and stage setups, dance troupes can greatly embellish costumes and the way the production is presented. For example, Valenzuela once saw a San Francisco Ballet version that featured a 12-year-old Clara entering a Faberge egg-type of prop, which spun around and out danced an adult Clara, played by a principal dancer ready to perform the “Grand Pas de Deux.”
Other differences are slight, but whether elaborate or elegantly simple, The Nutcracker production remains a favorite of audiences no matter how it’s presented.
Arts Editor Shelly Cone thinks she saw the Mouse King stealing cookies in the office last week. Contact her at scone@santamariasun.com.
This article appears in Dec 10-17, 2009.
