KAILUA-KONA — Lavish costumes and exuberant choreography bring the spirit of the holiday season to life in one of ballet’s most-enduring rituals, “The Nutcracker.”
West Hawaii Dance Theatre’s 50 students, who will be joined by dancers from The Maui Academy of Performing Arts and Timour Bourtasenkov, a professional dancer who’s performed with the Carolina and Bolshoi ballets, will bring the classic ballet to Kahilu Theatre on Monday and Tuesday. Curtain rises at 6 p.m. both evenings.
Choreography is based on the original Ballet Russe de Monte Carlo version, and has been adapted by West Hawaii Dance Theatre’s artistic director Virginia Holte, co-director Midori Satoh, and instructors Jenna Ojeda and Megan Joy Chapman. Accompanying the dancers is music of pianist Megumi Kopp, violinist Joel Gimpel and cellist Julie Saris. Kathleen Sime-Schulz will narrarate.
“We are hoping to bring joy to the community and our families,” said Holte, WHDT founder and artistic director.
An auction will be held in the the theater’s lobby during each performance with proceeds benefiting the theater.
“There’s so much icky stuff going on out there,” Holte added. “This is a way to escape for a little while and just go back in time.”
West Hawaii Dance Theatre performed a “mini” version of “The Nutcracker” in 2014 that left a couple of scenes out, such as the “Dance of the Mirlitons,” Holte said. It was the first time since 1997 when the group performed the classic ballet in which “nobody seemed to want to come,” she said.
“Last year, we broke even,” Holte said about the successful performance at Kahilu Theatre. “Maybe it was just the right time of year, close to Christmas.”
For 2015, the left-out songs will return and Holte, along with Satoh, Power and Chapman, adapted the performance to meet the skill levels of all students. Though Holte is not straying from the classic Ballet Russe de Monte Carlo version to incorporate Hawaii themes, she is adding, at the request of dancer Anna Kalia Smith, “O Holy Night.”
“The Nutcracker,” based on “The Nutcracker and the King of Mice” by E.T.A. Hoffman, is a fairy tale ballet in two acts centered on a family’s Christmas Eve tradition. The ballet includes heroic toy soldiers, sword-fighting mice, a journey to the Kingdom of Sweets, elegant waltzes, and the graceful “Dance of the Sugar Plum Fairy” — all through the eyes of a wide-eyed young girl. It premiered Dec. 18, 1892, at the Mariansky Theatre in St. Petersburg, but was deemed an artistic and popular failure, Holte said.
“The Nutcracker” was not performed again for nearly 50 years, she said. It was first offered in the U.S. by the Ballet Russe de Monte Carlo in 1940. It is from this Michael Folkine version that West Hawaii Dance Theatre draws its inspiration, Holte said.
Susie Krall, a 16-year-old student at Parker School, will perform a variety of roles in the upcoming performance, including portraying a mouse, a flower in the “Waltz of the Flowers,” a snowflake in the “Waltz of the Snowflakes” and a Chinese dancer. The Waikoloa resident has performed ballet with WHDT for about four years and enjoys being able to share her passion with the audience.
“It’s the Christmas spirit, ‘The Nutcracker’ really brings out the ‘toys’ because the nutcracker is actually a gift given to Clara and it embodies everything about Christmas,” said Krall. As for taking on so many roles, she added: “I like playing the different roles because with a snowflake you have to take its shape and as a rat you have to kind of look and feel dirty.”
The play opens with an extravagant Christmas party hosted by Herr Stahlbaum, his wife and their children Clara and Fritz. During the festivities, the children dance to entertain their parents before Herr Drosselmeyer arrives with a bounty of toys for the youngsters.
“Then he comes out and he has this big over-stuffed rat,” said Holte. “And, Fritz’s really happy about that, but then comes Clara’s gift: the Nutcracker and Fritz is jealous. They kind of have a tug of war and Fritz breaks the Nutcracker. But Drosselmeyer fixes it back up for Clara.”
As the evening grows late, the party ends, but Clara, worried about her Nutcracker, sneaks back to check on her toy beneath the Christmas tree. After holding the doll, a short time later, she hears a scurrying noise and becomes cornered by a giant mouse queen. Drosselmeyer then appears, and the female mouse runs away.
“Then, all of the sudden, the Nutcracker becomes life-size and with his little toy soldiers he battles the mice and the Mouse King,” said Holte. “At first you think the mice have won, but Clara comes in and saves the day by swatting the rat king on the head with her slipper. But the Nutcracker is laying on the floor and Clara thinks it’s over, because the rat king stabbed him, then Drosselmeyer comes in and he turns the doll into her prince.”
After thanking Clara, the Nutcracker whisks her off to his kingdom, The Land of the Sweets, where she is entranced by walls and floors of candy before meeting the Sugar Plum Fairy, who learns about Clara’s heroic deed saving the Nutcracker. In gratitude, a day of celebration is held and sweets from all over the world — including Persia, Russia and Spain, among others — gather to perform for her, as do the Nutcracker and the Sugar Plum Fairy.
Eventually, all good things must come to an end, and after one last dance, the Nutcracker waves and fades away. Confused, Clara appears to awaken at home and quickly runs to check on her doll, which is as good as new.
“We don’t know whether she was dreaming all that or if it really was for real,” said Holte. “It’s kind of like a fantasy but it’s also, ‘Oh, did that really happen’ — it’s kind of magical.”
Tickets range from $18 to $33 and can be purchased online at www.kahilutheatre.org.
Info: www.whdt.org, www.kahilutheatre.org.
