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'Tis The Season: The Joffrey Ballet To Present "The Nutcracker"

Leslie Velez |
December 6, 2011 | 9:56 a.m. PST

Staff Reporter


The Joffrey Ballet, The Nutcracker
The Joffrey Ballet, The Nutcracker
No artistic performance can recreate the warmth and enchantment of the holiday season quite like Pyotr Ilyich Tchaikovsky’s “The Nutcracker” ballet, and December 1-4, the world-renown Chicago-based Joffrey Ballet dance company continues the tradition at the Music Center with six performances of its celebrated production.  

Since his appointment in 2007, Artistic Director Ashley Wheater has carried on legendary dancer and producer Robert Joffrey’s Victorian Americana vision for the ballet, one whose staging, costumes, and choreography Joffrey felt most reflected America.  Wheater has spearheaded what Joffrey believed should be an interchangeable dance company without ranks, one that could tackle any role, allowing them to continue to develop as artists.

“The Nutcracker” is no exception.  In fact, its annual undertaking of performances requires that the company continue to seek out challenges within the work; ultimately, meeting the needs of the company means meeting the needs of the audience, says Wheater.                 

“There is kind of a heritage of being in the production and knowing pretty much every role in it,” he remarks.  “I would say at least two-thirds of the company are learning new roles, from anywhere to the Sugarplum Fairly to a Cavalier to Drosselmeyer.”  

“I think that if you asked the dancers, they would say it has gotten harder. The repertoire is more demanding, and there’s a lot more new material.”  As a result, the company is re-energized, an attitude reflected in the spirit of the production. 

“The Nutcracker” is no slouch from a technical standpoint, either, a point Wheater is insistent upon. An extraordinary attention to detail on the part of set and costume designers goes into preparing the 46 wrapped gifts under the nearly 24-foot Christmas tree, paper punch snow mixed with hand-cut, sparkling silver paper, and over 500 individual costume pieces--and that’s not to mention 24 pounds of delicate flower petals and a glittering horse.

“‘What did you guys do?’ people say.  ‘It looks so alive and so fresh.’ We try to re-light it and keep the lighting in a contemporary way.  We keep timing out the transformation scene that it retains its magic.”

Live music accompanies the dancers throughout the performance, yet another indicator of the liveliness of the Joffrey “Nutcracker” ballet.  This year the L.A. Opera Orchestra will provide instrumental accompaniment; the National Children’s Chorus, led by Artistic Director Luke McEndarfer, as well as over 60 additional local children will sing supporting lyrics.  

Wheater pulls the most well-recognized melodies in classical repertoire back from the brink of proverbial musical fluff in aiming to have the whole production mesh with the music, calling it “the driving force behind everything on stage.”

“It’s the difference between flicking on a switch or building an atmosphere.” he explains.  “It’s bringing the audible and visual senses together.  The show has to run through the music, and what I mean by that is every scenic transition, or the timing of the snow, or the timing of the balloon flying, away has to be within the music.  And when its there, it’s fantastic.”

 The magic is in the details of the Joffrey Ballet’s “Nutcracker,” and the company has retained the familiar and well-loved rendition of the production, even as many dance companies apply contemporary treatments to sets and choreography.  Under Ashley Wheater’s direction, the skill of the dancers speaks for itself.

“The company are dancing so well right now.  As a company they are an extremely talented group of people and there’s a quality to their dancing that people have really noticed.  When you put all the shape into the work, it does look really beautiful, and yet it is more contemporary, it is less restrained.  It has a freedom about it.”  

“And when it’s right,” he says, “it has an effect.”

“For the audience, the best case scenario is when they actually sit back and relax and the let it sweep over them.  They’re absorbed in that moment.  There is a lot in [“The Nutcracker”] that is captivating from the very beginning.”  

It is the story of which audiences are so fond, the mystery of Christmas and the dream-like imaginations of young children.  The company has such a long-running tradition of presenting Robert Joffrey’s richly detailed and creatively conceived “Nutcracker” ballet--it was Kermit Love, designer of Sesame Street’s Big Bird, who dreamed up Mother Ginger, the Mice and Clara’s pony, after all--that Wheater sees no reason to alter the premise of a production that has endured for 24 years since its world premiere.  

“You never want to lose a great story,” Wheater says,--and he knows the reason why us simple--“because it’s what we love as human beings.”  


Visit the website of the Music Center for details on “The Nutcracker.”


Email Reporter Leslie Velez here.

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