Interludes

VIEWPOINTS – Following THE NUTCRACKER into abstraction via New York City Ballet, Mark Morris Dance Group, and Nature Theater of Oklahoma

• By drediman
• December 16, 2024
• No Comments

This holiday season, I had the opportunity to attend a trio of extremely different dance presentations inspired by the classic holiday ballet The Nutcracker. Read on for my thoughts on this wild but fascinating journey from traditionalism to abstraction.

GEORGE BALANCHINE’S THE NUTCRACKER
New York City Ballet at the David H. Koch Theater
Through January 5

First up the David H. Koch Theater at Lincoln Center is New York City Ballet’s annual production of George Balanchine’s The Nutcracker (RECOMMENDED), arguably the city’s most recognizable and sought out version of the definitive Christmastime ballet. Firmly grounded in tradition, the lavish family-friendly production has changed hardly a bit since City Ballet premiered it in 1954 (the cherished production is based on the original 1892 ballet, itself a dance retelling of E.T.A. Hoffmann’s 1816 short story The Nutcracker and the Mouse King). The production’s reliable charms — there are many iconic moments and stage tableaus that lace the classic staging — rarely disappoint, and there’s even a cozy familiarity induced by the spectacle of it all. Throughout, Balanchine’s choreography feels deeply rooted in Tchaikovsky’s immortal ear worm of a score (played live by the company’s excellent orchestra), particularly evident in the two major choreographic sequences “Snow” and “Flowers”. Indeed, the production itself is the star, regardless of the quality of the performances. At the performance I attended this season, Miriam Miller and Erica Pereira where merely serviceable as the Sugarplum Fairy and Dewdrop, respectively; Taylor Stanley, however, found interesting nuances in the role of Herr Droselmeier. Despite this overall “average” performance of New York’s premiere Nutcracker, I nonetheless left the Koch Theater satisfied with my visit.

THE HARD NUT
Mark Morris Dance Group at the Brooklyn Academy of Music
Through December 22

Those of you looking for a spiked yet still recognizable take on the holiday classic need not look further than Mark Morris’s The Hard Nut (HIGHLY RECOMMENDED), which can currently be seen at the Brooklyn Academy of Music’s BAM Howard Gilman Opera House. Originally presented 1991 at the Théâtre Royal de la Monnaie in Brussels — where Morris at the time served as Director of Dance at the National Opera House of Belgium — the piece turns to parody and detailed observations of the modern family to put a decidedly more adult spin on The Nutcracker. Poignancy and kitsch come together in perfect harmony in The Hard Nut, which is set in retro 1960s suburbia and takes direct inspiration from the aesthetic of comic artist Charles Burns. Yes, there’s menace and irony (and more than a touch of awkward inappropriateness in the familial relationships) embedded in the work’s conception and in Morris’s choreography, but there’s also ample wit, joy, and musicality (has there been a more ravishing “Snow”?). Being such a large scale endeavor — the staging features a cast of 33 dancers, a full live orchestra, and even a chorus for the Snow sequence (even City Ballet’s production can’t boast this last feature) — any chance to catch The Hard Nut is an experience to be savored and celebrated. I’m happy to report that the current crop of MMDG dancers do the piece justice, bringing their distinct and delicious personalities to one of Morris’s masterpieces.

NO PRESIDENT
Nature Theater of Oklahoma at NYU Skirball
Closed

The Nutcracker reaches full abstraction, in both music and plot, in experimental theater company Nature Theater of Oklahoma’s surreal production of No President (RECOMMENDED). Like The Hard Nut, the production — created by Pavol Liska and Kelly Copper, who have tellingly subtitled it “a story ballet of enlightenment in two immoral acts” — was first seen in Europe (in 2018 at the Ruhrtriennale in Germany, to be exact), and it made its North American premiere in a brief run earlier this month at NYU Skirball. Given the production’s hallucinatory take on a classical story ballet, it’s really no use delving into the plot, which departs completely from E.T.A. Hoffmann’s narrative. Let’s just say that security guards, a deadpan narrator who doubles as the devil, and cannibalism all feature prominently. Using a seemingly haphazard patchwork of Tchaikovsky’s score — some of the composer’s material is missing, while other themes repeat ad nauseam — the production is at once a parody and a grandiose homage to the absurdity of story ballet plots in general (La Bayadère, anyone?), a characteristic that nicely mirror the kind of insanity underpinning many an experimental theater effort. There’s no denying Nature Theater’s commitment to Liska and Copper’s vision — at once playful and viciously physical, there’s a rigor that underlies the mayhem of No President. By the end of the long intermission-less evening, both cast and audience emerge from the experience both exhausted and exhilarated.