One of life’s very few immutables is a holiday entertainment calendar packed with productions of the classic ballet The Nutcracker. Yet never let it be said that Orlando was content to let the concept grow moth-eaten and moss-covered.
This season will bring one brand-new take on the material that re-examines it from fresh cultural perspectives and three returning productions that have further refined their own unique approaches to the ballet-féerie (fairy play) that was first staged in 1892.
First out of the gate will be Central Florida Ballet, which has not only changed the name and location of the Nutcracker that it has performed for the last 23 years but also updated the dance’s content to reflect current geopolitical sensitivities.
The company’s A Christmas Nutcracker Tale has relocated from its former home at the Orange County Convention Center to Steinmetz Hall at Dr. Phillips Center (Friday and Saturday, November 22 and 23, 7:30 p.m. on Friday and 2 and
6 p.m. on Saturday).
In a statement of solidarity, the traditional “Russian” dance has been supplanted by a Ukrainian Gopak routine in honor of those impacted by the ongoing war. The Gopak is popularly referred to as the National Dance of Ukraine.
The Nutcracker Tale cast will include American Ballet Theatre’s Yoon Jung Seo and Takumi Miyake as the Sugar Plum Fairy and Cavalier, respectively.
They’ll be joined by Ellexis Hatch, a recent Juilliard grad and Ballet Academy of Central Florida alum, as the Butterfly in the “Waltz of the Flowers” sequence. Former Orlando Ballet dancer Kathryn Tosh will dance the role of the Shepherdess.
Unchanged, however, will be the dance’s explosive pyrotechnics and aerial choreography, which have garnered national attention from the likes of USA Today and CNN Headline News. The renowned “Arabian” scene, in particular, will wow viewers with the overhead feats of dancer and aerialist Christye Alan.
In Orlando Community Arts’ Clare and the Chocolate Nutcracker (Saturday, November 30, 7:30 p.m., Walt Disney Theater at Dr. Phillips Center), the familiar journey of a young girl through a global playground of the imagination will now originate in Harlem.
Writer/producer Beverly Page, who has staged the show nine times at various venues since its 2012 debut at the Bob Carr Performing Arts Centre, reached back in time, prior to Tchaikovsky’s better-known stage version, to take her inspiration directly from Prussian writer E.T.A. Hoffman’s 1816 source novella, The Nutcracker and the Mouse King.
Page—who has also published a book and created a line of tie-in merchandise for Clare—has retold the story as a fantastical, multicultural travelogue through such locales as Africa, Asia, the Caribbean, Haiti, India and Puerto Rico.
The cast will include 15-year-old Avalon Dance Company member Sairi Witherspoon as Clare (“Marie” in Hoffmann’s book) and Atlanta-born, Juilliard-trained Xavier Logan as the Chocolate Nutcracker Prince who acts as her guide.
There’ll also be a special guest appearance by violinist Jaquay Pearce, a fixture on the local scene who’s frequently seen lining up as a member of the string quartet Violectric.
Next up will be the sophomore run of Orlando Ballet’s $3.6 million production of The Nutcracker (December 6 to 22, multiple performances, Steinmetz Hall, Dr. Phillips Center), which was hailed as a milestone in Central Florida’s commitment to the arts when it arrived in December 2023.
Matthew J. Palm of the Orlando Sentinel wrote that the show “sparkles with joy and warms the heart like a bracing cup of cocoa on a chilly morn.”
The sumptuous sets, colorful costumes and other visual elements helped draw attention to an undertaking that the ballet had engineered to remain a local staple for at least another couple of decades.
The upgrades made by Artistic Director Jorden Morris for the second year will include new marionettes for the show’s well-received puppetry component and some small changes to the choreography.
The ballet will also offer a couple of “relaxed” performances with preshow activities for children and sound and lighting tweaked to go easy on little ears and eyes. (And parents, you’re welcome to take kids out of the theater for a break, without reproach, if they get restless.)
Finally, Flamenco del Sol’s The Nutcracker (Sunday, December 8, 3 p.m., the Ritz Theater at the Wayne Densch Performing Arts Center, Sanford) will be set in Spain. The production will retain the Tchaikovsky score as its musical template but will weave it together with flamenco pieces.
Working from a concept by company director/choreographer Tammy Weber de Millar and a script by Gabriel Garcia of the Wildfire Players, the dance-heavy production will follow teenaged Clarita (company dancer Briana Small) as she is whisked away from a party in Seville.
Clarita then visits seven other Spanish cities, where she watches and participates in colorful and energetic performances enhanced by authentic regional costuming.
Photo Courtesy Michael Cairns.
