The Nutcracker 2008
Dec. 14th, 2008 08:15 am![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
rsadelleI know I already blabbed about how much I love ballet and The Nutcracker, but I have to do it again because we went to see it last night.
It was awesome. If you're in Chico and it's not sold out, you still have a chance to make it to today's 2:00 matinee.
My mom was struck by how different the choreography and staging were this year. At intermission we chatted with one of her friends who did behind the scenes work, and she said it had to do with different levels of dancers. One of the things I found interesting was how much they kept it in the Company. In both the program and the pre-show intro, they talk about how it's an all-Chico production this year. Usually they bring in at least one outside professional dancer. They also did the battle scene themselves. In years past, one of the local martial arts studio heads has been the Mouse King with his students as the mice and tin soldiers. This year, the battle was done by the studio's hip hop company, and one of their assistant directors was the Mouse King.
The dancer playing the Mouse King, the male Arabian dancer, and one of the party guests is the previously mentioned T from my ballet class. It's fascinating to watch his face on stage. In class, he has a kind of cocky smirk (but in a sweet way) thing going on. On stage, he's totally different and he does a great job of matching his expressions to the role. When I want to Keeping Dance Alive in March, I noticed how much I could see the personalities of the people I knew from class in their dancing on stage - which was especially interesting because I know them from ballet and they were mostly doing jazz, hip hop, or modern. The exception was T, and I thought at the time that it was because he always talks in class and I'm such a word-focused person that I got a sense of his personality from his talking and not his dance. Now I think it's that he's a very good actor.
I knew several of the other dancers from my ballet class, which was also neat. In the past couple of months, we've had some of the Company members dropping in to our class. It was kind of a trip to see people on stage in leading roles whose technique Debbie will correct when they come to a beginner level class.
It was awesome. If you're in Chico and it's not sold out, you still have a chance to make it to today's 2:00 matinee.
My mom was struck by how different the choreography and staging were this year. At intermission we chatted with one of her friends who did behind the scenes work, and she said it had to do with different levels of dancers. One of the things I found interesting was how much they kept it in the Company. In both the program and the pre-show intro, they talk about how it's an all-Chico production this year. Usually they bring in at least one outside professional dancer. They also did the battle scene themselves. In years past, one of the local martial arts studio heads has been the Mouse King with his students as the mice and tin soldiers. This year, the battle was done by the studio's hip hop company, and one of their assistant directors was the Mouse King.
The dancer playing the Mouse King, the male Arabian dancer, and one of the party guests is the previously mentioned T from my ballet class. It's fascinating to watch his face on stage. In class, he has a kind of cocky smirk (but in a sweet way) thing going on. On stage, he's totally different and he does a great job of matching his expressions to the role. When I want to Keeping Dance Alive in March, I noticed how much I could see the personalities of the people I knew from class in their dancing on stage - which was especially interesting because I know them from ballet and they were mostly doing jazz, hip hop, or modern. The exception was T, and I thought at the time that it was because he always talks in class and I'm such a word-focused person that I got a sense of his personality from his talking and not his dance. Now I think it's that he's a very good actor.
I knew several of the other dancers from my ballet class, which was also neat. In the past couple of months, we've had some of the Company members dropping in to our class. It was kind of a trip to see people on stage in leading roles whose technique Debbie will correct when they come to a beginner level class.