It would be easy to assume that every dance ensemble in the Western Hemisphere is presenting The Nutcracker this time of year. For quite a while, one of the few that didn’t was St. Louis’ Center of Creative Arts, to the annual dismay of then-head of its dance department, Antonio Douthit-Boyd.
The reasoning was that since in December you can’t toss a pointe shoe in any direction without hitting a Nutcracker performance, one more production was unnecessary.
Each year, Antonio would try to change the minds of the powers that be. Each year he would be turned down. Until 2024, the year COCA gave Antonio the green light.
“We produced our first ever Nutcracker, and it was one of the highest-grossing shows they’d ever had,” Antonio said, without even a hint of “I told you so” in his voice.
This year, Antonio left COCA to become the head of Patel Conservatory’s Dance Department and artistic director of Next Generation Ballet®, for which annual Nutcracker stagings are a Very Big Deal indeed.
The Nutcracker is as inevitable during the holidays as mistletoe, candy canes and tinsel. The ballet’s holiday bona-fides are solid. The story takes place at Christmas, the action is triggered by a Christmas present and a Christmas tree plays a major role in the story. Plus, the ballet had its debut one week before Christmas Day, 1892. And so it was ever thus. Or thus it was ever so. Either way, it wasn’t.
Many, many Christmases went by between the ballet’s premiere and its attainment of holiday ubiquity. There is sound reasoning for this as well.
The show was not that popular initially. “Nice ballet, shame about Act Two” is a rough approximation of audiences’ reaction. Act Two features wonderful dancing but almost completely drops the storyline of Act One. Besides, once those mice show up, especially the freaky seven-headed King Mouse dude, The Nutcracker becomes less a Christmas ballet and more of a “What was in that cider?” ballet.
The ballet wasn’t performed outside Russia until 1934 when it was produced in London. The first complete U.S. performance was by San Francisco Ballet on Christmas Eve, 1944, and the company has continued performing Nutcracker every Christmas season since. So blame them.
Blame George Balanchine, too. The famed choreographer’s Nutcracker production for the New York City Ballet premiered in February (!) 1954. It is notable for, among other things, having more roles filled by children, including those of Clara and the Prince.
CBS aired performances of Balanchine’s Nutcracker three days before Christmas in 1957 and on Christmas Day in 1958, helping solidify, in the U.S. at least, the Nutcracker-Christmas connection.
Whatever the composer’s intent, Nutcracker is now ensconced in Christmas culture, just like It’s a Wonderful Life and the novelty song “Grandma Got Run Over by a Reindeer.”
Each year, young dancers take the stage, many for the first time, feeling the thrill of bringing a beloved work to life in front of an audience. Each year, young audience members will hear live classical music and watch a timeless ballet, many being exposed to these art forms for the first time.
It’s an annual big event for our Next Generation Ballet, and for the audiences who thrill to it for the first time or the 40th time.
This year, Next Generation Ballet’s Nutcracker features performances by guest artists Isabella LaFreniere and Jovani Furlan of New York City Ballet, Next Generation dancers and more than 100 Patel Conservatory students in six performances taking place Dec. 19-23 in Morsani Hall. For tickets or more information, call 813-229-7827 or visit strazcenter.org
