Power Pointe

This holiday season brings good news for theatergoers. After a one-year hiatus, the Syracuse Symphony Orchestra’s production of Tchaikovsky’s The Nutcracker returns Friday, Dec. 4, to Sunday, Dec. 6, at the Mulroy Civic Center’s Crouse-Hinds Concert Theater, 411 Montgomery St. Since the last show in 2007, the symphony switched dance companies from the North Carolina Dance Theater to BalletMet, based in Columbus, Ohio. Lovers of the holiday classic can expect a spectacular performance nonetheless.

Richard Decker, vice president and general manager of the SSO, took part in the decision to change companies after the 2007 season. The break from The Nutcracker in 2008 was a direct result of problems the symphony experienced while collaborating with North Carolina. When the dance company changed some of the choreography a few years back, Decker says the response to the new show surprised SSO brass. People called to complain about favorite parts omitted from the new performance, and ticket sales dropped off both years after the choreography changed. Due to the response to North Carolina’s production, the SSO opted to take a year off from The Nutcracker to consider the options for a new company. 

“We thought it would be a good opportunity to move on to a different company,” says Decker, who explained the symphony wanted a year off to make sure their return production “had something fresh.” Because, as Decker puts it, “the music is the music” for The Nutcracker year after year, the “fresh” aspect the symphony searched for needed to come from the visual aspects of dancing, costumes and sets.

WILL SHIVELY PHOTOS

 

Before he chose BalletMet, Decker looked at countless performances of the ballet composed in 1891 and 1892 by Pyotry Ilyich Tchaikovsky. The Russian composer based the music on “The Nutcracker and the Mouse King,” a story by E.T.A. Hoffmann. It is among the most popular ballets in the West, and is performed primarily around Christmastime. Not only does the ballet present the opportunity to expose “high culture” to children, it’s also a chance for little boys and girls to dress in holiday finery and enjoy a 110-year-old tradition. 

Although Decker auditioned many fantastic performances of the ballet, some also came with fantastic price tags. Some productions were too centered around the dance company’s hometown city, like a performance that made use of a historical house in the community. While the ballet was good, Decker knew it didn’t make sense to remove the company from its element. 

He says BalletMet worked best for the SSO based on three main components: artistic performance, availability and affordability. “They had excellent dancers, good sets and their costumes were very colorful,” explains Decker. “The other thing that was nice about the BalletMet was that they also had magic in their performances. That was sort of the icing on the cake.”

What Decker refers to as magic includes minor special effects, such as things floating through the air. Although these are a closely guarded secret, they will be performed a lot with Drosselmeyer's character. He believes the children present at the performance will enjoy the simple effects along with the other fantasy sequences such as the “mice battle.” As for the adults, Decker thinks the new quality of the dancing will be most impressive. “It’s such an engaging story for adults and kids,” says Decker. “They created a very approachable production for all ages.” 

Part of the reason the production is so engaging has to do with BalletMet’s choreographer and artistic director, Gerard Charles, who has done quite a few Nutcracker performances in his time. “I have personally been involved with The Nutcracker since I was 9 years old,” says Charles.

This year marks the sixth anniversary of Charles’ Nutcracker choreography at BalletMet, but before he created dances for other people, he danced himself. Charles joined his first dance company in London in 1976 where he met his wife, Catherine Yoshimura, the children’s director for BalletMet since she retired from performing in 1998. Yoshimura danced her first Nutcracker ballet at 7 years old and, like her husband, has been involved in Nutcracker shows ever since. After his retirement from dance in 1994, Charles became the assistant art director at BalletMet before he earned his current title as artistic director. 

Sometimes you feel like a Nut: Clara’s dream begins when an oversized, dancing Nutcracker takes the stage; the sequence with Mother Ginger (BalletMet dancer Adam Hundt) and her children is always a show-stopper; and BalletMet dancers Jackson Sarver and Christine Mangia present their dance with grace and athleticism.

Tiny Dancers

Both Charles and Yoshimura take pleasure in being part of a community event that has helped kick off the holiday season in Syracuse for more than 25 years. Every year the SSO puts on The Nutcracker, local dancers and singers join in the celebration. One community aspect of the performance involves female chorus members from local high schools. Every year the young ladies sing the “La, la, la” chorus, a segment of the “Snow Scene” at the end of Act I, from the back of the orchestra pit. The musical movement lasts a good seven minutes. The 144 chorus members participating this year are from Cicero-North Syracuse, Marcellus and West Genesee high schools.

Another way the community gets involved is by supplying local children ages 7 to 18 to fill the young dancer roles in the ballet. The host school for the dancers has traditionally been the Syracuse School of Dance, and for many years, children from that school exclusively performed in The Nutcracker. For the 2009 production, Sept. 24 auditions were opened to children from all the area’s dance schools. Rehearsals began Oct. 11. One of the directors from Syracuse School of Dance, Mary Pat D’Angelo, says that 56 children fill roles from tiny Pages to older Party Children. Dancing parts also include mice, angels and soldiers. 

“BalletMet teaches us the choreography, and then it is our job to rehearse, rehearse,” says D’Angelo. “They come up this weekend {Oct. 21 and 22} to check on our progress and make possible changes.”

Rehearsing this year remains especially important because a new dance company means new choreography for dancers to learn. D’Angelo says that when the original choreographer left North Carolina, so did the choreography, the settings and the costumes, likely the source of the unpopular changes to the classic. Until then, the choreography had been the same in all the years they worked with North Carolina. 

D’Angelo, however, isn’t worried about the challenges of working with the new company. “They were fantastic,” exclaims D’Angelo. “They were so nice to the kids and so easy to work with.”

Charles and Yoshimura say they also enjoyed working with the young dancers. “The children bring enthusiasm and excitement,” says Charles. “It helps the {BalletMet} dancers remember that they were like that once.”

Yoshimura agrees. “There is a warm regard between the dancers and the kids. BalletMet is such a warm-hearted group of dancers. I’ve been with companies where saying ‘hello’ to a child is beneath them. Not with BalletMet. The dancers talk to them about football, school and dance if it comes up.”

Those attending the BalletMet Nutcracker performance will experience the official debut of the newest choreography, especially in the “Mother Ginger” sequence. Yoshimura says “the Syracuse kids baptized” her husband’s choreography for this part of the show, and she was pleasantly surprised by how quickly the kids took to the challenging dances.

“Those kids were so charged. They were so energetic,” says Yoshimura, who admits she is unlike the stereotypically sweet ballet teacher. “There is a lot of spit’n’vinegar in me, and I guess they like spit’n’vinegar.”

Overall, everyone eagerly anticipates seeing the ballet as a whole. “Because it’s brand new to the area, we have only seen parts of it,” says D’Angelo. “We’re really looking forward to getting this off the ground.”

Decker, who says people are just now getting into “The Nutcracker rush” to buy tickets, hopes the production will draw the big audiences of years past. He also thinks that although people seem to be “stuck in fall mode,” there’s one aspect of early winter that snaps people out of that mentality better than any other. “What we could use,” says Decker, “is about a half-inch of snow to hang onto the trees and bring some whiteness to get people thinking about the holidays.”

Tickets for The Nutcracker are on sale at the SSO box office, 411 Montgomery St., or at www.syracusesymphony.org. General admission is $39 for adults and $10 for children ages 12 and younger. Performance times are Friday, Dec. 4, 7:30 p.m.; Saturday, Dec. 5, 2 and 7:30 p.m.; and Sunday, Dec. 6, 2 p.m. For information, call 424-8200.