There’s something magical about The Nutcracker that keeps audiences coming back year after year. Pyotr Ilyich Tchaikovsky is practically ubiquitous in winter, the ballet’s soundtrack playing over mall sound systems or, inevitably, in my office on repeat.
Ballet companies start gearing up for their productions as early as September. In Oklahoma City, it’s no different.
This year, Oklahoma City Ballet is adding some new flavors to this seasonal confection — we’re looking at you, Pistachio Baklava Dancers.
Breaking tradition
Under the creative direction of Oklahoma City Ballet Artistic Director Ryan Jolicoeur-Nye, the company will unveil a bold reimagining of the classic ballet that promises to preserve the heart of the beloved holiday tradition while weaving in fresh characters, sets and more.
“Changing The Nutcracker is a pretty risky move,” said Jolicoeur-Nye, acknowledging the ballet’s crucial role in the company’s season.
The company relies on ticket sales from this production, its largest of the year, to run its operations.
“So changing it is a scary thing to do,” he said, “because you want to walk the line between giving the audience what they’ve come to expect and what you believe they love about The Nutcracker.”
Jolicoeur-Nye and his company designers got together for several days early on, when they locked themselves in a room “for hours and hours on end” to brainstorm.
“We just started from the very beginning,” he said. “And that was identifying what is it that the community loves so much about The Nutcracker? What are the things that people cherish that we want to hang on to?”
Jolicoeur-Nye and the team decided to preserve the heart of the show while giving it a few key updates. They cohered the ballet’s acts by having characters that appear in the reality Act One reappear in new fantastical forms in Act Two, taking a page from The Wizard of Oz.
They also wanted to expand the group that gets to travel into the Nutcracker’s fantasy world, much like the Pevensies in C.S. Lewis’ The Lion, the Witch and the Wardrobe.
Gone are the days of lonely Clara watching from her throne as the divertissements unfold in Act Two, Jolicoeur-Nye said. Instead, the production takes the trio of siblings (Clara, Fritz and their older sister Marie) on a journey through the Land of Sweets, each getting more character development along the way.
The production updates some of the ballet’s more dated elements, too. The traditional Arabian Dance, for instance, has been reimagined as the Pistachio Baklava Dance, performed by the same dancers who appear in Act One as a well-traveled aunt and uncle.
Another change on the technical side is the choice to do open set changes. In traditional productions, the Drosselmeyer character performs magic that alters the various settings through stagecraft.
“We were trying to think, where does the real magic from The Nutcracker come from?” Jolicoeur-Nye said.
In Oklahoma City’s version, characters on stage will move flats and other elements to transition between scenes.
“As a part of this story, we really wanted to immerse the audience into this world,” he said, “and a way to bring them into the world with us was to do these scene changes ‘a vista,’ as we call them, which is within in sight of the audience.”
For example, in the opening, audience members will see the Stahlbaum mansion from the exterior, until dancers take the walls, whirl them around the stage and flip them, revealing the mansion interior and Christmas tree.
“We let the audience see the magic of that scene being created,” Jolicoeur-Nye said.
World-class team
To bring this vision to life, Oklahoma City Ballet has assembled an impressive team. This includes 27 professional dancers, 35 members of OKCB II, and over 80 students from the Oklahoma City Ballet Yvonne Chouteau School.
The production’s designers are a who’s who of theater.
“I think the really braggable thing for Oklahoma City is that the three designers that we have working on this production are world-class designers,” Jolicoeur-Nye said.
The show’s 195 new costumes are by Holly Hynes, a veteran of New York City Ballet and George Balanchine productions. Lighting designer Trad Burns has worked on numerous Nutcracker productions across the country. Scenic designer Michael Raiford is fresh off his award-nominated work on Septime Webre’s ballet The Wizard of Oz.
The production’s technical elements are crafted by the same artisans who have brought magic to Broadway’s biggest hits, Jolicoeur-Nye said. The costume makers behind The Lion King and Wicked created key looks, while Cobalt Studios’ Rachel Keebler, described by Jolicoeur-Nye as “the best drop painter in the entire world,” created the production’s backdrops.
In addition to its regular performances, the company will offer The Nutcracker Tea, a Dec. 21 fundraiser benefitting community programs. Guests can enjoy a special performance and a visit from Santa and Nutcracker characters.
There is also a sensory-friendly performance of the show on Dec. 18.
“That performance started in partnership with AutismOklahoma, and it was really a way to make our Nutcracker more accessible to the public,” Jolicoeur-Nye said.
This presentation features adjusted lighting and sound levels, with no strobing lights or pyrotechnics. It also welcomes audience movement and provides an observation room equipped with fidget toys and a video feed.
Jolicoeur-Nye said that anyone needing accommodation can attend the performance, including families with toddlers or infants.
“It really is a great way, I think, for people to enter the ballet performance world with very young children to see how they do, but also to make accessible for audience members that have sensory sensitivities,” he said.
Jolicoeur-Nye encourages everyone to make it to the show.
“Oklahoma City, this community is very lucky to have a production like this,” he said, crediting supporters Devon Energy and The Chickasaw Nation. “Art of this caliber in the Midwest is really something to be prideful of.”
The Nutcracker runs Dec. 14-23 at Civic Center Music Hall, 201 N. Walker Ave., and features 11 performances with live music from OKCPHIL and Canterbury Voices. Single tickets range from $29 to $128.
For more information, visit okcballet.org or call Oklahoma City Ballet at 405-848-8637.
This article appears in New Year’s Eve Guide.