Holiday Chestnut ‘Nutcrackers’ Abound In Region; Alberta Ballet To Premiere New Choreography

Like many aspects of the holidays, “The Nutcracker” is primarily for children. The main characters are the young Clara and Fritz, children dance in dozens of other roles in this classic ballet, and the dance companies count on children to fill the seats in auditoriums and concert halls.

The “Nutcrackers” being staged in the Inland Northwest this weekend are no exceptions. Young local dancers will perform in the productions in Spokane, Pullman and Sandpoint. As expected, it’s an exciting opportunity, according to dancers chosen to perform the roles of Clara, lambs, party children, angels, soldiers and mice.

Fourteen-year-old Lindsey Witter landed the role of Clara in Alberta Ballet’s Spokane performances of “The Nutcracker.” She’s a veteran in this production; last year she was a party girl. This year, though, she’ll be on stage throughout the two-hour dance.

“Clara is a longer part and I’ll get to do a lot more dancing and more acting,” Witter said prior to a recent rehearsal.

In a change from past years, though, Clara will be danced by a young student only in the matinee performances. An Alberta Ballet ballerina will dance the role in the evening performances Friday Saturday at the Opera House.

Student dancers will perform Clara and Fritz in the “Nutcrackers” staged in Pullman and Sandpoint by Eugene Ballet and Ballet Idaho, which is the same company dancing under different names.

Young dancers audition in early autumn, and those who land roles rehearse several times a week until the performances in early December. They don’t audition for specific roles, though; they’re cast based on whether they fit the costumes.

Thirteen-year-old Lindsey Ridgway of Spokane was a lamb and an angel in previous “Nutcrackers.” This year she’s taller and she’s been cast as a party girl.

Being a lamb was her favorite role: “You get more attention and get to act more as a lamb.” And, since the lambs appear in the second act, she was backstage the entire show. “When you’re a party girl, you’re done after the first scene and then you go home or just wait and hand out candy canes at the door after the dance,” Ridgway said.

Another veteran Spokane “Nutcracker” dancer, Ashley Miller, 14, was cast as a party boy this year. “Usually there aren’t enough boys for the boys’ roles,” she explains.

She’s been a mouse and a lamb — twice — in previous years. “The lamb was my favorite but by the second year it was kind of an overload of cuteness,” Miller said.

This is the 10th consecutive year Alberta Ballet has staged “The Nutcracker” with the Spokane Symphony, and the 22nd year the symphony has sponsored a “Nutcracker.”

While the costumes and sets will be the same as previous years, Alberta Ballet Artistic Director Mikko Nissinen has transformed the choreography.

“I have returned the ballet to the original concept of the original choreographer, Marius Petipa,” Nissinen said in a recent phone interview from the ballet’s offices in Calgary, Alberta. “It has been way more than a hundred years since it was created and I am trying to bring to the audience the same kind of feeling it created for the audience then.”

Actually, when “The Nutcracker” made its debut at the Imperial Theatre in St. Petersburg, Russia, in 1892, audiences were unsure what to make of it, and the critics loathed it. According to Dance Magazine’s account of “The Nutcracker’s” debut, the ballet was most appreciated by the ballet schools, whose students landed many roles.

In addition to Clara, other roles will also be danced this year by professional rather than student dancers in the Alberta Ballet performances. “I really wanted to show the company at the technical extremities,” Nissinen said.

Nissinen added a scene with Herr Drosselmeyer in his workshop finishing the Nutcracker, and the story line has assumed a darker tone. In Clara’s nightmare, Drosselmeyer enters the grandfather clock and is transformed into a huge menacing owl and the dolls from the party scene return as giants to haunt Clara.

“The dolls turn into nasty characters,” said Nissinen. “I was trying to get a nightmarish feel to the scene.”

Nissinen also ramped up the intensity of the soldier and rat battle scene. “In that scene the Nutcracker peels his nutcracker costume like a banana and becomes the Prince,” he said. “Clara saves his life and he leads her through the magical forest to the Land of Sweets. The story needed a more clear psychological line.”

The Friday night performance in Spokane is the world premiere of Nissinen’s new “Nutcracker.” After Spokane, Alberta Ballet performs the new ballet in Vancouver, B.C., Edmonton, Alberta, and Calgary.

“The Nutcracker” performance is about two hours with one intermission. Consistent with past policy, patrons who arrive after the performance begins will be seated at the back of the auditorium until intermission, when they can take their reserved seats.

Those who want to familiarize young children with the plot prior to the performance should use the traditional E.T.A. Hoffmann story, used by both Alberta Ballet and Eugene Ballet/Ballet Idaho.

The Eugene Ballet “Nutcracker” deviates at a few points, most notably when the Mouse King arrives at the battle scene in a pirate ship.

“My goal was to redevelop the major aspects of the ballet,” said Eugene Ballet Artistic Director Toni Pimble, who re-choreographed the production. “We wanted to appeal to children’s sense of fantasy.”

Two sidebars appeared with story: 1. If you go * Alberta Ballet and the Spokane Symphony will stage “The Nutcracker” today at 7:30 p.m., Saturday at 2 and 7:30 p.m. and Sunday at 2 p.m. at the Spokane Opera House. Tickets are $33, $29, $22 and $16 for adults, $13 for students, available through the symphony box office (624-1200) and G&B (325-SEAT, 1-800-325-SEAT or www.ticketswest.com). * Eugene Ballet will stage “The Nutcracker” Sunday at 7 p.m. at Beasley Coliseum in Pullman. Tickets are $28, $22 and $16 for adults; $28, $16 and $10 for students; $28, $12 and $8 for children, available through G&B in Pullman at the Beasley box office and The Depot; in Moscow at the University of Idaho North Campus Center, and in Lewiston at Albertson’s. * Ballet Idaho will stage “The Nutcracker” Monday at 7:30 p.m. at the Panida Theater in Sandpoint. Tickets are $18 for adults, $10 for students younger than 18, $14 for Pend Oreille Arts Council members, available in Sandpoint at Eve’s Leaves, the Lyman Gallery and the POAC office in the Power House Building, and in Clark Fork at The Chair Factory. Attendees are encouraged to bring a nonperishable food item for the local food bank.

2. ‘Nutcracker’ facts

* More than 50 local student dancers will perform in Alberta Ballet’s “Nutcracker” in Spokane. About 30 student dancers will perform with Eugene Ballet and Ballet Idaho in Pullman and Sandpoint.

* In a departure from tradition, the Spokane Symphony Chorale will not perform this year; four voices have been added to the lineup for the snowflake scene.

* Alberta Ballet’s conductor, Earl Stafford, will conduct the Spokane performances. “Nutcrackers” in Pullman and Sandpoint will be danced to taped music.

* Ballet companies perform “The Nutcracker” primarily as a revenue source. “The Nutcracker” provides more than 42 percent of annual ticket revenue for large ballet companies, 59 percent for medium-size companies.

* Dance Magazine lists 108 different “Nutcrackers” in North America this season. That does not include the “Nutcrackers” on ice and “Nutcracker” puppet ballets.