5 minute read
BALLET and BEYOND: The Nutcracker’s Dark Fantasy
Soloist Elizabeth Kanning. PHOTO BY KYLE GREEN, COURTESY OF BALLET IDAHO
BY AURORA STONE MEHLMAN
Imagine Christmas Eve and a richly decorated home enrobed in smells from the night’s feasts—roasted meats, spiced cider, and fresh-baked sugar cookies. Outside, glittering snow coats the neighborhood. Inside, little Clara awakens, slips from her blankets, and creeps down chilly stairs to the light-decked Christmas tree. Below the tree stands her favorite present, the nutcracker. There, in foreboding darkness, Clara cradles the broken toy. Soon she sees the grinning face of her eccentric godfather in the shadows and the scurry of enemy mice. Suddenly, the nutcracker comes alive. He fights the mice and leads the girl through a fantasy land, rich in color and candy, inhabited by outlandish characters. In the morning, she awakens under the tree. Was it all a dream? In Idaho and around the world, this story is perhaps the most popular tale of Christmas Eve magic. As Ballet Idaho’s Cassie Mrozinski asked, “What would the holidays be without ‘The Nutcracker’?”
Every year, Ballet Idaho, accompanied by the Boise Philharmonic, delights Treasure Valley residents with their production of “The Nutcracker”. They stage the two-act classical ballet first set to music by Pyotr Ilyich Tchaikovsky, choreographed by Marius Petipa, and performed by the Imperial Mariinsky Theatre in St. Petersburg, Russia in 1892. In the United States, the ballet premiered in 1944 at the San Francisco Ballet, but gained widespread popularity when George Balanchine created a version for the New York City Ballet in 1954. Balanchine’s version was the first to feature children, a tradition that Ballet Idaho has carried on, with over 100 students from the Ballet Idaho Academy in the current cast. The ballet, with its gorgeous costumes and colorful sets, has been the introduction to performance and dance for countless people over the decades, both young and old—one of whom is the current executive and artistic director of Ballet Idaho, Garrett Anderson.
What would the holidays be without ‘The Nutcracker’?
Though Garrett’s initial introduction to ballet occurred while accompanying his mother to her recreational dance class, he recalls when he saw “The Nutcracker” and “first became aware of children on stage.” Eventually, he won the role of Fritz, though he hadn’t yet begun dancing. Catapulted into professional dance by the experience, he went on to become a soloist with the San Francisco Ballet and the Royal Ballet of Flanders. Much to the region’s good fortune, he later relocated to Boise and Ballet Idaho. Now he brings his own children to “The Nutcracker” every year and champions “nostalgia for ‘The Nutcracker’ tradition,” recognizing the importance of the performance for Idaho communities. “[‘The Nutcracker’] is many people’s entry point to ballet, and even music and stage production,” Garrett said, a place where community comes together during the holidays, both for the audience and those behind the scenes.
Ballet Idaho’s “The Nutcracker” is a whimsical, popular representation, but another Boise artist, Anya Anderson (no relation to Garrett), captured the original story’s darker nature in her newest collection. In 1816, the German writer and staunch Romanticist ETA Hoffman published his novella The Nutcracker and the Mouse King. Hoffman visualized his fantastical story as a counterpoint to the rise of rationalism. In Hoffman’s prose version, the little girl who has been gifted the nutcracker, named Maria, is haunted by frightening visions of a seven-headed mouse king. After she suffers a serious injury, her godfather, Drosselmeyer, fills her in on the backstory of a beautiful princess, Pirlipat, who has been cursed by the mouse queen. Drosselmeyer’s nephew eventually frees Pirlipat but acquires the curse. Deformed as a result, he is subsequently spurned by the princess. Eventually, Maria breaks the curse. Returned to human form, the young man marries Maria, and they rule over her fantasy land come to life.
The longtime Boise artist and dollmaker Anya, who originally hails from Russia, has always been fascinated by folk tales. She became acutely drawn to Hoffman’s Nutcracker after the war in Ukraine broke out, recognizing parallels between war and the story’s themes of vengeance, moral reckoning, and idealism. Her dolls, each of which represent a character in Hoffman’s work, are astonishingly detailed, with life-like faces, fantastical costumes, and an element of realism that makes a viewer feel the dolls might awaken when the gallery lights dim. Anya started out as a painter, but when she first needled a felt doll more than a decade ago, she said she had a “moment of magic when the little face looked back at me.” After studying in Portland, Oregon under EJ Taylor, she began creating art dolls. First, she forms the skeletons from Styrofoam or foil, and then builds the bodies with paper clay, layer by layer, until the unique character of the doll emerges. Anya appreciates Hoffman’s complex story and the eventual triumph of good. Ultimately, both Hoffman’s version and our modern nutcracker ballet converge in their celebration of childhood and whimsy, as well as their ability to generate tradition and community spirit.
The many iterations of “The Nutcracker” have mesmerized artists, dancers, and audiences for centuries. This holiday season, you too can be captivated by the magic. Catch Ballet Idaho performing “The Nutcracker” December 6 to 16 and visit Anya’s dolls at Art Source Gallery through November.
