The Washington Ballet jetéed into the holidays with their first Nutcracker performance of the season on Saturday, November 29. The Washington Ballet’s performance of The Nutcracker is an uplifting experience from start to finish.
Once you have taken your seat, you are introduced to a delicate winter scenery and the Artistic Director of the Washington Ballet, Edwaard Liang. This is the way many families start their festive season, and, in the words of Liang, “For over sixty years, the Washington Ballet has had the honor of being a holiday centerpiece for families who both visit and who call this city home.”
The Nutcracker follows a girl named Clara through her adventures with a ‘nutcracker’ doll on Christmas Eve. In the beginning, the audience is welcomed into the warm, comforting home–based on a Georgetown rowhouse–of Clara and her family, as they await their guests and start prepping for their Christmas party. As their family members and guests arrive, the theatre is filled with the resonant music of Pyotr Ilyich Tchaikovsky; one of the later songs being the beloved Dance of the Sugar Plum Fairy, often heard throughout the holiday season. The backdrops and effects also continue to create magic for the audience, as during the winter scene in the first act, ‘snow’ falls from the ‘sky’ as they dance.
The audience also has the privilege of watching over 400 young students from The Washington School of Ballet (TWSB) dance with the company members.
The company’s professional dancers perform a multitude of various roles. Usually, dancers of the Washington Ballet follow an incredibly rigorous schedule; dancers often have multiple roles with little time–usually around two weeks–to prepare. Company dancer, Felecia Baker, who has been dancing professionally for ten years, but has only been with the Washington Ballet for two seasons, says “The first week is chaotic and you’re tired and confused, but then, it becomes muscle memory.”
The Washington Ballet’s Nutcracker, specifically, is very DMV-themed. While the traditional Nutcracker performance has a Chinese-inspired dance in the second act, they have fishermen, and instead of Arabians, they have ‘Anacostans’. The second act also incorporates cardinals, which are the state bird of Virginia.
The Sugar Plum Fairy is one of the most sought-after and difficult roles in the ballet. When asked about the role, long-time dancer Ashley Murphy-Wilson said, “It never gets easier in terms of stamina, even if your stamina is the best it can ever be. So, being able to do it, and bring a bit of something different to it every time makes it a challenge, but also so rewarding: I push my artistic integrity or my body or my stamina, or my characterization to a different level.”
Both Murphy-Wilson and Baker love to dance the role of the Anacostans due to its “sensual” and “grounded” feel. This dance is often a favorite of ballet aficionados and viewers of the Nutcracker due to its acrobatics and dynamics between the two dancers of the duet. For those like Baker who have not previously experienced the Nutcracker before, it will become very special and almost impossible to get sick of. As Murphy-Wilson said, “Art is what connects people as humans.” As you walk out of The Washington Ballet Nutcracker, your heart and spirit align with those around you, all having witnessed something extraordinary.