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We were looking for videos of Boston Ballet when we found a DVD of a Nutcracker performance (December 9, 2012) by the American Academy of Ballet in Williamsville, New York, near Buffalo.
This is primarily a student performance. To add to the interest, two dancers from Boston Ballet performed the Sugar Plum Fairy and Cavalier pas de deux. Ballet schools and smaller companies will often bring in a few dancers from major companies for their Nutcracker shows. Seven other guest dancers were separately credited and danced other major roles. These dancers grew up in the Buffalo area, went to ballet schools (including AAB) there, or are members of ballet companies there. The rest of the cast consisted of AAB students and faculty, other ballet school students, and volunteers from the community including parents of students.
It is not unusual for small companies to bring in dancers from major companies to perform. In 2012, at least ten Boston Ballet dancers filled a total of at least 15 Nutcracker guest positions.
What do you do when you don't have enough parts for all of the students to play? Boston Ballet holds auditions for its Nutcracker and currently takes about 250 out of about 300 applicants, all from its own school. Here AAB added more divertissements to Act 2. The Nutcracker also serves as the midterm recital for the AAB students.
The plot of Act 1 is much the same as a typical Nutcracker performance. with Herr Drosselmeier giving Clara a nutcracker doll and Fritz breaking it. The midnight scene emphasizes dancing mice as opposed to fighting mice. In this version, the Christmas tree does not grow in size. There is a short fight with one gunshot and with the Nutcracker stabbing the Mouse King with a sword. No one is killed. The mouse shot at is just stunned and runs off. The Mouse King is taken off in a wheelchair instead of a coffin. Recent current events regarding gun control and gun murders may result in the removal of the gun in later productions.
Act 2 depicts Clara dreaming she is a teenage princess. Most Nutcracker shows keep Clara as herself while the prince is an adult. One production by the New York City ballet had both Clara and the prince as subteen children. Unlike in most Nutcrackers the prince in the AAB show does not re-enact using mime how he vanquished the Mouse King. (The music for that part is used later in the act.)
Wouldn't you like to ride in my beautiful balloon?
Here, Clara's nutcracker has transformed into a handsome prince taking her on a hot air balloon trip around the world. Using overhead cables, a balloon gondola carries them but no balloon is shown. Past Boston Ballet Nutcracker shows included the balloon with the gondola for the prince and Clara. Flying By Foy provides the aerial effects for both AAB and BB.
Almost full circle for Buffalo area native Taner Van Kuren as the prince with (according to preliminary cast list) Madeline Marsack as teenage Clara. (Photo credit: American Academy of Ballet) Inset: AAB student Taner, seven years prior, costumed for The Nutcracker. Now training at Juilliard, he teaches, including at AAB, during the off season. (Photo credit: Buffalo News)
The "tour" starts in China with a tiger accompanied by two groups of student dancers, one group pointing with fingers and the other group wearing dragon heads and waving ribbons. (We called it a tiger rather than a dragon from the appearance of its wagging tail.) The two lead dancers, one male and one female, appear a little later. Arabia also has two leads, male and female, .here accompanied by one student group. Next, you have to use your imagination that you are in Spain since the Spanish dance (with three couples and no student dancers) is done with a black background. Also with a little imagination you can say that there is a great outdoors seen through arched windows of Santa's workshop and that is the North Pole. Students play elves and reindeer. Boston Ballet has the prince and Clara going to just one place where they are treated to different goodies: tea, coffee, and chocolate represented by the first three dance numbers mentioned here respectively. (Somehow I don't think of coffee and tea as being goodies in the Land of Sweets.)
Most of you have seen "standard" Nutcracker productions so we show mainly scenes unique to this version.
Students displaying what they learned in ballet school. (Photo credit: American Academy of Ballet)
Then comes Waltz of the Flowers set in Holland (with a windmill prop) and one dancer as a butterfly swinging overhead. Two dozen older students represented tulips (a symbol of Holland) and sunflowers. Clara joined in the dancing for most of this number, and the prince danced for the last few seconds. Mother Ginger (Grandmere Ballabile) with her Polichinelles is set in France, with the Eiffel Tower on the backdrop. After that, a trip deep down under the sea with three dance numbers. The first number is done to Saint Saen's Carnival of the Animals, The Fish. A Disney tune accompanies the rest of the scene. Second is the lobster dance which suggests a little burlesque with the dancers wagging their behinds at the audience. In the final part the dancers standing in the background holding props such as sea horses get to do some dance steps.
Many got to perform deep down under the sea. Background clockwise from left: mermaids (don't they all look like Ariel?), lobsters, turtle, King Triton disguised in regalia, jellyfish, school of fish. (Photo credit: American Academy of Ballet)
Then a circus scene with four circus music numbers. As in a 3 ring circus, several acts perform simultaneously on different parts of the stage some of the time. Amidst the dancers were stilt walkers and a juggler, while a trapeze artist swung overhead although not performing gymnastics.
(Left only) In the foreground: A step any world class (e.g. Boston Ballet) ballerina or danseur should be able to execute. (Photo credit: American Academy of Ballet) (Right) Boston Ballet's phenom Jeffrey Cirio in legitimate modern dance costume at BB studios. (Photo credit: Brian Mengini)
The final scene is the Land of Sweets. There are eight divertissements presented including the Russian Trepak and the Marzipan (Pastorale), these last two with all-female casts. The Trepak was presumably re-inserted here as it was mentioned as missing in a review of the previous year's show. I thought that the dance with the bakers holding cakes and pies could have been done better. They did not hold their trays level so it looked like they were getting into a pie throwing contest although they did not throw the cakes and pies. Some numbers including the bakers' dance used Act 1 and early Act 2 music. The grand pas de deux followed the divertissements.
The grand pas de deux with Misa Kuranaga and Isaac Akiba. (Photo credit: American Academy of Ballet)
Even infants and toddlers got to perform. (Boston Ballet School has students as young as 18 months). In the Waltz of the Flowers scene, small children sat in flower pots and stood up to wave their arms. For the Marzipan (in the Kingdom of the Sweets), infants, billed as "Baby Bonbons" were held by the hand while they "learned to walk" on stage. Given the rigorous movements of the dancers, they must be careful to support the infants' heads to prevent neck whiplash injuries.
The students were divided into two casts for three weekend performances and one partial Friday show for Buffalo school children. The numbers of dancers listed in the preliminary cast list suggested that some parts were done by the same dancers for all of the shows. Two DVD recordings were published, for the Saturday matinee and Sunday matinee respectively. We are guessing that a wedding videographer did the recordings. They used at least two cameras, one with a fixed wide angle view of the entire stage and the other doing closeups and pans. Fortunately there was none of the jitter and shakiness often seen with "home videos." The disadvantage was that many times the main subject, in the spotlights, was overexposed and washed out. Granted, the only way to avoid this is to put other dancers in shadow although a better compromise could be had. But adjusting the brightness (stopping down) has to be done with care to avoid annoying rapid brightening and dimming common in home videos.
"Remember your child's performance for years to come with a DVD. Great for out of town relatives, too."
One challenge, which I think was met, was giving meaningful camera time to each dancer or group of dancers. The main market for these DVDs is the dancers themselves and their parents. Originally the Saturday evening show was supposed to be recorded instead of the Sunday matinee. It might have been recorded also but only used to provided spare scenes to make sure each dancer was included in at least one DVD.
Partner's Choice
What brought Misa Kuranaga and Isaac Akiba to Buffalo? There is a likely convoluted story that comes from the way dancers stay with the same partners for pas de deux. New York City Ballet's Daniel Ulbricht spent several summers training as a teenager at Buffalo's Chautauqua School of Dance and also danced in AAB's Nutcracker. He joined NYC Ballet late in 2001 and a few years later danced with Misa who had entered NYC Ballet's school. In 2003, Misa went to Boston Ballet but continued to dance with Daniel for guest appearances including in The Nutcracker and other performances in Buffalo. In 2012, Daniel couldn't make it and Misa selected co-worker Isaac whom she had partnered in the past..
Much hard work goes into becoming a good partner. Isaac Akiba and Semperoper Dresden's Yuki Ogasawara in summer intensive training six years prior. Note the varied leg warmers and other clothing that each dancer prefers for easy movement versus maintaining proper muscle temperature. (Photo credit: Anne Sophie Rodriguez for Ellison Ballet)
Guest dancers performed most of the partnering positions in the AAB Nutcracker. Partnering is one of the most advanced portions of ballet training.
A well executed lift looks effortless. It cannot be executed too rapidly otherwise it can cause injury to the woman's ribcage. In the best lifts, the woman needs to assist with a jump. Sometimes this is overdone. In one Nutcracker video, from the New York City Ballet, Darci Kistler appears to hop up onto Damien Woetzel's arm.
Trivia
Misa Kuranaga performed (the same role of Sugar Plum Fairy) in New Haven, CT on Friday night. This left 15 hours until the Saturday AAB matinee. We're not sure of the actual logistics but if she were driven to Buffalo overnight she would have had rehearsal time in the morning.
Last updated 6/22/13
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