Nutty Buddy
With A Children’s Nutcracker Syracuse City Ballet refreshes an old standby in a post-Thanksgiving performance
Sugar spice and magical delights will abound at Syracuse City Ballet’s presentation of A Children’s Nutcracker on Saturday, Nov. 27. This year, the show moves to the 2,117-seat Mulroy Civic Center’s Crouse-Hinds Concert Theater, 411 Montgomery St., since the Landmark Theatre is closed for renovations. The new venue is one of many updates.Tchaikovsky’s score is familiar: The Sugar Plum fairy theme is already playing on one local radio station, and has been since the day after Halloween. It’s as commonplace as eggnog and reindeer cardigans as the holiday season approaches. But with fresh choreography, vivacious from the first crescendo of the overture to the final full-cast flurry, this rendition of the holiday classic is not to be missed.
This Nutcracker is the only offering from the Syracuse City Ballet (formerly Upstate NY Ballet) this holiday season, and director Kathleen Rathburn could not be more thrilled with the decision. For years, the company did other productions, such as Snow White, Romeo and Juliet and Cinderella, and avoided the candy-coated favorite because it was done so regularly in Syracuse. But Rathburn took the plunge last year with the holiday tradition, and the response was huge. “If we were going to do it, it was going to be fast-paced and it was going to be active,” Rathburn says. Every detail, from costumes to props, underwent a facelift.
“This production is different from those you might see anywhere else,” Rathburn says. “There are magic tricks and a snowball fight. We also have a bigger ‘Waltz of the Flowers’ than ever before, and a flying Arabian lamp. It’s just full of surprises.”
She isn’t kidding. During dress rehearsals, the flying Arabian lamp is roughly the same size as one of the youngest dancers, who range from elementary to high school, with the youngest among them, playing the role of one of the mice, being a mere 6 years old. “We have the cutest mice that ever lived,” Rathburn notes with a smile.
They’re busy mice too. There is not one idle moment during this Nutcracker—a purposeful move on Rathburn’s part. While she explains that Tchaikovsky is an easy composer to choreograph, she emphasizes how important it is to have a stage full of action.
After all, a children’s ballet should appeal to the antsy Sesame Street fans in the audience if it is to be a success. Rathburn’s sense of timing and comedy serves to craft a dance experience that engages onlookers of all ages. There’s even a rickety Grandpa onstage, whose determination to show off his dancing prowess will have the audience in stitches.
Thoroughly engaging and smartly comedic, this Nutcracker prompts deep laughs from every belly in the crowd. Backstage, the mice mingle with flowers, snowflakes, gingerbread girls and boys, Arabian dancers and more. The older dancers help the younger ones, all functioning as a unit to ensure a smooth performance.
“Some of us have been dancing together since we were 3 years old,” says seventh-grader Abby Carrock, one of the more advanced students. “When you’re with the same group from the very beginning, you really do become a family.”
Carrock sat with two of her friends, Taylor Garlow and Alexandria Korzeniowski, as one of the many Saturday rehearsals drew to a close. The girls carefully wrapped their satin shoes and chatted about the ups and downs of the afternoon. When the average rehearsal lasts four hours, there is ample time for both.
“If my feet could talk right now, they’d be saying, ‘Please, help me!’” one girl exclaims. Apparently, the pinkie toes of a dancer have it worse than any other appendage or muscle.
Regardless, the dancers are excited for this year’s performance; the fact that it is the Syracuse City Ballet’s only one this season makes it even more special. Some of them plan to pursue a career in ballet, and all have been encouraged to audition for roles in productions as far as New Jersey and Connecticut.
“{Rathburn} really encourages us to audition for as many roles as we can, just to get the experience of going through that process,” says Korzeniowski. “She always tells us to try our hardest and see what happens. Sometimes, it turns into something great.”
If the dance students have any doubts as to where their talents may take them, they can look to the professional dancers who are a part of the final production, such as Vanessa Woods of the St. Louis Ballet, who will be dancing the role of the Snow Queen. Other noteworthy appearances are Richard McKee, a former director at Syracuse Opera, as the narrator, as well as Mike Price, the longtime WSYR-Channel 9 personality, as the enigmatic godfather Drosselmeyer, who bestows upon Clara the gift of the nutcracker, the catalyst for the merriment that follows. Collaborating with professional dancers reinforces Rathburn’s lessons about perseverance, focus and, above all, passion.
At the end of a four-hour practice, it’s not strength or flexibility that gives rise to the undeniable talent of Rathburn’s students: It’s the love of ballet and the camaraderie built on years of such practices that give these young artists their edge.
Beyond the painstaking precision of plies and pirouettes, more than impossibly arched backs and legs, even beyond the colorful instrumental score by Tchaikovsky, A Children’s Nutcracker aims to tell a story, and to do so with unforgettable flair. In the capable hands, and toes, of the Syracuse City Ballet, it accomplishes exactly this.
A Children’s Nutcracker will be performed twice on Saturday, Nov. 27, a 1 p.m. matinee and a 7 p.m. evening show. Tickets for children are $5. Adult seating starts at $21.50, and tickets are available through the Syracuse City Ballet at 435-2121 or online at www.ticket master.com.