Southold Dance Theater presents
2014
2014
Southold Dance Theater
Join us this holiday season for a remarkable experience that your little ones will
T
love!
his timeless holiday classic returns to thrill and enchant audiences of all ages. Delightful sets and costuming
will enhance your travels with Clara as you watch her Nutcracker come to life, see her Christmas tree grow and travel with her to the world of the Sugar Plum Fairy. From dancing soldiers to pirouetting snowflakes, it's a treat for the whole family!
Saturday, December 13th 2:00 pm & 7:00 pm Sunday, December 14th 2:00 pm For ticket information call 574-235-9190 To purchase tickets online please visit
www.morriscenter.org
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N P D R Z R N Z U J H M K P V P U S J V R N D I D O F S R T H V T T Q O Q S Y U H T U E U R I D C K R B F S Q W J G S C Y H P A R G O E R O H C A O S B R W X B A K T E E R Y R P E A Z E A U I C S U E N P P M O L H R Y N E R K N T S B L O H L R O G E A D G E D U A U C S E A G F E M I E E R O L M F E R X S H F S L B D P W L F I T I Q E F E M A E M S T E A T N N R D D Z L A E S B A T I O I A R T A L S T N R S B P R M O L E X E A R A L C N O Q Y N P S K T D B A L A N C E R A O Z T C H A I K O V S K Y G D Q X V S N O W R E M I M O T N A P J R Y E L Y Z X Y N E S T X Z S Q R J Q V M G G J A J Y H K
Find the words below in this special Nutcracker word search puzzle. Words can be forwards, backwards, diagonal, vertical or horizontal. Balance
Composer
Mouse King
Set Designer
Ballerina
Corps De Ballet
Nutcracker
Snow
Ballet
Drosselmeyer
Pantomime
Sugar Plum Fairy
Barre
Genre
Pas De Deux
Tchaikovsky
Choreography
Hoffman
Pointe Shoes
Tempo
Clara
Motif
Rehearse
Tutu | Southold
Dance Theater
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Southold Dance Theater
Help the ballerina!
Help her find her way through the maze to the dance studio! Enter
Exit
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About
Southold Dance Theater
S
outhold Dance Theater (SDT) is a regional training company dedicated to dance excellence. SDT is the only dance organization in the region to offer a pre-professional track of study for the serious dance student. Under the direction of the professional staff, dancers strive to achieve mastery of technique and performance. Many dancers successfully audition for some of the nation's most prestigious dance institutions. Several have gone on to professional dance careers. As the resident dance company at the Morris Performing Arts Center, Southold enriches its audience with high standards of performance. Southold provides a rigorous training and rehearsal schedule, as well as a dedication to the art of stagecraft, that bring the art form to life.
“Southold Dance Theatre is the only dance organization in the region to offer a pre-professional track of study for the serious dance student.�
The training program is enhanced additionally by working side by side with professional dancers both in the studio and on the stage. From the classics of the ballet repertoire to provocative works in modern dance, Southold Dance Theater is committed to presenting high quality performances that inspire and awe its audiences. Public performances attract audiences of more than 7,000 annually while more than 13,000 area school children enjoy the Youth Concert programs. The enchanting classic, The Nutcracker Ballet, is a favorite mainstay of the holiday season. Southold's production has featured live orchestration by the South Bend Symphony Orchestra, guest artists, custom designed scenery and costumes, and a cast of hundreds. The spring program ranges from the classic story ballets like Swan Lake, The Sleeping Beauty, Coppelia and Cinderella to new works by resident and guest choreographers. Southold Dance Theater (SDT) is a not-for-profit 501 (c) (3) organization, and is funded in part by a grant from the Community Foundation of St. Joseph County through the Indiana Arts Commission, a state agency, with funds from the Indiana General Assembly and the National Endowment for the Arts.
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Act I
The Stahlbaum house is aflutter with preparations for their annual holiday party. While Clara and her brother Fritz anxiously await the arrival of the guests, Uncle Drosselmeyer can be seen in his workshop putting the finishing touches on his unique toys. The party finally begins with plenty of food, presents, dancing and fun! The beloved Uncle Drosselmeyer arrives late with a cloak full of magic and amazes the guests with two life size dancing dolls. He then presents Clara with a magnificent nutcracker. The gift sparks sibling rivalry, and the nutcracker is broken. Drosselmeyer wraps the toy with a silk and promises a complete repair later. Clara and Fritz rejoin their friends for the remainder of the party, ending the evening in a festive gavotte with parents and children alike. After the guests have left, and the family has gone to bed, Clara sneaks downstairs to see if her nutcracker has been repaired. Exhausted from the party, she curls up on the day bed with her nutcracker and begins to dream. With the stroke of midnight, mice rule the Stahlbaum's home. They chase Clara and her nutcracker until Drosselmeyer appears. He scatters the mice briefly, magically repairs the nutcracker and brings her toys to life. The mice return and a battle ensues between the mice and the toy soldiers, who are lead by Clara's nutcracker. The dreaded Diva Mouse Queen joins the battle and all looks lost for the Nutcracker. In desperation, Clara throws her shoe, striking the Mouse Queen, which distracts her long enough for the Nutcracker to strike. The Queen is vanquished, but Clara and her Nutcracker collapse from the stress of the battle. The Snow Fairy appears and calls on her entourage to revive the couple and treat them to a beautiful journey through the Land of the Snow.
Act II
Clara and her Nutcracker prince arrive in the Land of the Sweets ruled by the beautiful Sugar Plum Fairy and her Cavalier, where angels and guests from around the world greet them. The Sugar Plum Fairy gives Clara a crown, and she and her Prince are escorted to their throne, where they are given sweets to enjoy. They are entertained with a feisty Spanish dance, a sultry Arabian dance, a spritely Chinese dance, an exciting Russian dance, a Shepardess with her little lambs, Mother Ginger and her Polichinelles, and a sumptuous Waltz of the Flowers. The Sugar Plum Fairy and her Cavalier dance an elegant Pas de Deux as their final gift to the young couple. Clara is overwhelmed with joy and thanks the Sugar Plum Fairy and her Nutcracker Prince, only to see the guests disappearing! She swirls around in confusion, and dazed, realizes that she is in her own living room. She finds her Nutcracker under the tree, and lovingly holds it, wondering if her adventure was real or just a dream‌ 6 Southold Dance Theater |
What are P
pointe shoes?
ointe shoes are specially-made shoes worn by ballerinas to allow them to dance on the tips of their toes. Pointe shoes make ballet dancing look magical and even daring. They create an illusion of lightness and give a sense that the ballerina is floating on air. Pointe shoes look dainty, but they really aren’t. The tip of the shoe is a rigid box made of densely packed layers of fabric, cardboard and/or paper hardened by glue. The dancer depends on it to be extremely sturdy: the entire weight of her body is balanced on a small platform in that box! The rest of the shoe is made of leather, cotton and satin. Each shoe is custom hand-made to fit each dancer's specifications. No two pairs of pointe shoes are identical! Each time a dancer gets a new pair of pointe shoes, she has to break them in. To do this some dancers pound the box of the shoe with a hammer to soften it. Some dancers cut the satin off the box and use a carpenter's file to rough up the sole. Each dancer has her own method to make their shoe fit their foot but all dancers have to sew on their own ribbons and elastic to hold their shoes in place. After all this work the dancer’s pointe shoe may only last them just one performance, depending on the difficulty of the ballet. A professional ballerina can go through 100120 pairs of pointe shoes in one season!
“Each shoe is custom handmade to fit each dancer's specifications. No two pairs of pointe shoes are identical!” | Southold
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The Nutcracker Finger Puppets How to make your King Rat Finger Puppet
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The Story Behind the Story
Did you know that no two versions of the ballet the Nutcracker are exactly alike? Through its history, it has changed so many times that there’s no single “original” version. Every ballet company that performs it – including Southold Dance Theater – has its own Nutcracker with its own special touches. But behind them all is the same story… The Nutcracker is one of the most-loved ballets of all time. It’s become a Christmas tradition throughout much of the world. Many people grow up seeing it every year, and many young dance students dream of being part of a Nutcracker production. It’s no wonder the ballet is so popular — it’s got fun music, beautiful costumes, wonderful dancing, and a story that combines fantasy, sweets, a magical land, princes, fairies, and Christmas. But did you know — it wasn’t always so popular? It actually started out looking much, much different.
“No two versions of the ballet the Nutcracker are exactly alike!”
The Nutcracker was created nearly two hundred years ago as a story called The Nutcracker and the Mouse King, written in 1816 by a German author named E.T.A. Hoffman. In the 1890s, the director of the Russian Imperial Ballet decided to stage a ballet based on telling of the Nutcracker story. His chief choreographer, Marius Petipa, asked the famous composer Peter Tchaikovsky to write music for the scenes that he developed. Petipa became ill, so his assistant, Lev Ivanov, developed the choreography for that First ballet version of the Nutcracker. The ballet premiered at St. Petersburg’s Mariinsky Theater in 1892. When the ballet premiered, some people considered it a failure! They thought the most of the choreography was too simple and that it didn’t give the ballerina enough opportunity to show off her skills. For the next several decades, the ballet was performed in different versions and even under different titles, but it was never very popular. It wasn’t until 1944 that the first production of the Nutcracker in the United States was staged by Willam Christensen for the San Francisco Ballet. This time, the ballet was a huge success, and became so popular that audiences demanded the performance every year since. This how the Nutcracker tradition began. Through the years, ballet companies worldwide have adopted the Nutcracker as a permanent feature in their repertory. People love Tchaikovsky’s music, and it is a perfect Christmas story. Because it has become so special to audiences, many choreographers and ballet companies now stage their own versions of the ballet. | Southold
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Sugar Plum Fairy
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Many of the melodies in the Nutcracker were drawn from existing music that people of the composer’s time would have recognized: The Grossvatertanz (Grandfathers’ Dance) that ends the party scene is a traditional tune that was played at parties to hint to people that the party was over and it was time for them to go home!
Meet The Composer
The finanal children's dance earlier in the party is a French nursery song, Bon Voyage, Cher Dumollet. The Arabian dance is based on a lullaby from the Asian country of Georgia.
Peter Ilyich
The Trepak (Russian Dance) borrows from several wellknown Russian folk dances.
1840-1893
Mother Ginger is a reworking of a French folk song, Giro"e, Giro"a, which is about a little boy with three birdhouses for swallows.
Tchaikovsky A Russian composer known for his colorful and romantic music, Peter Ilyich Tchaikovsky is the creator of the magical sounds Photo: www.bringmusic.com of The Nutcracker. Born the son of a mine inspector and on May 7, 1840, Tchaikovsky is known to have dabbled in composition from the age of 14. But it was not until 1862 when he enrolled in the St. Petersburg Conservatory that he would devote his life entirely to music. It was there that Tchaikovsky would produce his first overture. Throughout the 1870s he enjoyed moderate success with the Second and Third Symphonies; operas The Oprichnik and Vakula the Smith and with the ballet Swan Lake. In the 1880s he composed the “1812 Overture,” the “Hamlet Overture-Fantasia,” “Symphony No. 5 in E Minor,” and the composition sketch to The Sleeping Beauty, among others. By 1890, he had completed one of his most successful operas, The Queen of Spades, and made his first and only trip to the United States. After his return, he lent his melodic gifts to the ballet The Nutcracker, which surprisingly enjoyed little success during his lifetime. The man who made such an indelible mark on music passed away on November 6, 1893, in St. Petersburg, Russia.
Peter Tchaikovsky, the composer, also used several unusual “instruments” in the music of the Nutcracker – children's noisemakers such as a rattle, bird calls, toy trumpet and miniature drum. He had purchased many of these instruments in Paris, the city where he also discovered the celesta – a keyboard instrument that produces a soft, bell-like sound. Auguste Mustel, a French instrument maker, had invented it just a few years earlier. Tchaikovsky found out about Mustel’s new instrument almost by accident. He had received an invitation to conduct at the opening of the Andrew Carnegie Music Hall in New York. To get to New York, he traveled from Russia by way of Paris, and it was there that he heard the celesta. “I expect that this new instrument will produce a colossal sensation,” he wrote to his music publisher. News in the 1890s did not travel as fast as it does today, and Tchaikovsky knew that almost nobody in Russia had heard of the celesta. He wanted to surprise his audiences with the beautiful sound of the new instrument, so he kept it a secret from other Russian composers until he finished his first music for it in 1891. In 1892, the Nutcracker made its premiere – and when the Sugar Plum Fairy danced to the delicate chiming tones of the celesta, it marked the first time many people in Russia had heard Mustel’s new musical instrument. The Dance of the Sugar Plum Fairy is still perhaps the world’s bestknown piece of music for the celesta. | Southold
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The Nutcracker ďƒŽ December 13th & 14th At the Morris Performing Arts Center
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First Position: The balls of the feet are turned out completely. The heels touch each other and the feet face outward, trying to form a straight line.
Second Position: The balls of both feet are turned out completely, with the heels separated by the length of one foot. Similar to first position, but the feet are spread apart.
Basic Ballet Positions
Third Position: One foot is in front of the other with the front foot touching the middle of the back foot.
Fourth Position: The feet are placed the same as third position, but one step apart.
Fifth Position: With both feet touching, the toes of each foot reach the heel of the other. | Southold
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What is a Tutu? Why Do they Wear those Funny Skirts? A tutu is a special kind of skirt worn by ballerinas in many classical ballets. These short, light skirts are made from several layers of net, often stiffened or supported by a wire hoop. They are the result of evolution in women’s costumes. In early ballet, women wore floor length skirts and petticoats, as fashion required. They gradually shortened their skirts to show off their technical footwork. During the Romantic Era, from about 1830-1860, the most popular costume was a filmy net skirt, which came to be mid-calf, and contributed to the ethereal image of the ballerina. As dance technique continued to become more complicated, the classical tutu, a short, stiff skirt which has many layers of stiff net to make it stand out, was developed. By the 20th century, some designers discarded skirts altogether, but the tutu still appears in most ballets as a symbol of tradition.
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Erica Fischbach
Artistic Director, Erica Fischbach, came to South Bend after a 20 year professional ballet career with the American Ballet Theatre and the Pacific Northwest Ballet. Ms. Fischbach is an American Ballet Theatre Curriculum certified teacher as well as a certified Gyrotonic instructor. During her first months as a professional dancer, Ms. Fischbach had the privilege of dancing Balanchine ballets as a principal under the direction of Edward Villella. She then moved to Pacific Northwest Ballet where she quickly rose to soloist rank. After nine years with PNB, Ms. Fischbach took two years away from company life to freelance as a guest artist, as well as teach ballet, pilates, and Gyrotonic based classes. In 1996 she was invited to join the American Ballet Theatre, where she danced until 2005. Ms. Fischbach has been featured in several “Dance in America” films, the PNB “Nutcracker”, and “Center Stage”. Ms. Fischbach began teaching at Southold in 2008, and in December 2008, she was named Artistic Director. Under Ms. Fischbach’s direction, Southold has become a prominent presence at the prestigious international Youth America Grand Prix competition. Since 2009, the Southold Youth Company dancers have won top placements in the classical and contemporary soloist divisions as well as the ensemble division. In 2013, YAGP honored Ms. Fischbach with the “Outstanding Teacher” award. In addition to directing Southold’s school, youth company, and world-class summer intensives, Ms. Fischbach is on the faculty of the ABT summer intensives. Ms. Fischbach is thrilled to have the opportunity to share her experience with the wonderful Michiana community. She is energized by South Bend’s giving families, and is finding the balance between directing Southold, guest teaching nationally, and raising her beautiful daughter Fiona Rose.
Spot the Difference There are 10 differences between the two pictures. Can you find them all?
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