Ballet Jörgen’s Nutcracker is now in its third year of performance. Choreographed by artistic director Bengt Jörgen, (who is originally from Sweden) and based on E.T.A Hoffman’s The Nutcracker and the King of Mice, this version of a timeless classic, is a loving tribute to Canada.
From its dazzling seasonal backdrops featuring three of the Group of Seven’s most celebrated artists, to the Canadian wildlife divertissements de dances in the second act, Ballet Jörgen’s Group of Seven Nutcracker is an inspired, and joyous transformation of a beloved holiday tradition.
Audiences instantly embrace the enchanting cast of characters in Klara’s seasonal Group of Seven wonderland, enhanced by G7 visual artists Franklin Carmichael’s Church and Houses at Bisset (1931), Tom Thomson’s Snow in the Woods (1916) and L.L. FitzGerald’s Trees and Wildflowers (1922) all set to Pyotr Ilyich Tchaikovsky’s exquisite score.
Cracking Open a Traditional Chestnut
How long did you mull over this idea for a new version of The Nutcracker?
Bengt Jörgen: “A couple of years before we premiered it, I started thinking about it and I knew that we probably needed to refresh and do a reset of The Nutcracker, because the old one had been running for 13 years and it was created at a time when the company was not a strong as it is today. So it reflected a much more basic approach to The Nutcracker. Certainly it was a good production, but it just didn’t have the sense of vitality and flair that the company can deliver today.
“So then, the issue really became should we just do exactly 'the same old' and update the dancing a little bit, but what we really we wanted to do was a production that would be dramatically much more cohesive. The Nutcracker is a holiday favourite, and if you take the standard piece, quite honestly, it is a pretty boring production, in that it does not have a dramatic through-line.
"Basically, The Nutcracker is an icon that people see just because they think they should go and see it at this time of year. But it doesn't really .... resonate. So the issue was, well, we could do the same old production which is what everybody else does. They just do The Nutcracker because it makes money, or they do it because they have to have a presence during the holiday season. But we thought Ballet Jörgen as an artistic organization, could take a look at this piece to see if we could create a work that holds together as an artistic production, even if it wasn't just The Nutcracker at Christmastime."
So you wanted to make this a production you could showcase at any time?
Bengt Jorgen :“Yes. Instead of just saying 'well it is The Nutcracker and therefore it does not really matter, if it holds together as a strong production', we thought we would rather have a production that was something we would be proud to showcase at any time of the year.
And regardless of the fact that it is a Christmas ballet, we would still be proud of it artistically. So, in that case the work really became more about how to tell the traditional story in a way that actually is relevant and meaningful beyond just having a pink tutu onstage.”
Divertsissements de Dances - Raccoons, Loons, Squirrels and Bears, Oh My!
I know that you camp a lot at Algonquin Park and you have an enormous respect for Canada’s outdoors and its wildlife. How did you create the choreography for each animal in the famed second act divertissements de dances?
Bengt Jorgen: “The divertissement de dances have been used in every possible context. People seem to think there is some sort of traditional standard when it comes to The Nutcracker. There isn’t. The closest you can come to that, is a British version which was done in the 1930’s, and that’s simply because a lot of people did it for a while. But it is a lot less traditional than many of the old Russian productions. Those Russian productions are so faded that most people wonder what the heck they are seeing.
"There isn’t any traditional Nutcracker. You have the traditional story, but then it has been used in so many different ways that, in a way, the transcribing of the production is not in itself that complicated. It is more that we needed to find a dramatic through line which actually holds together from the beginning to the end. Usually you have the first act that holds together, and then you have a second act that is completely disconnected, so basically it is two separate ballets.
"Once we found the through-line which was really about transcribing it into Canadian context, but having all of the traditional elements there, it wasn’t hard to actually transcribe the divertissements de dances. Because the raccoons are really Spanish and because they have the mask like Zorro kind of look, so it has that Spanish feel to it already. Just the way they can move, they have a sort of different way about them. The Chinese is the dragonfly, so the dragon is already part of the Chinese culture, so in a way it is very simple. Russian is, of course, the bears.
"I think the interesting thing is the Arabian dance. Originally that could have been the most challenging one but because loons have such a haunting beautiful voice, the Arabian dance had that echo in it already. So that was the easiest of them to do, when at first, we thought it would be the most difficult one.
"I think the biggest challenge actually was how to introduce The Nutcracker. What place does the Nutcracker have in the piece, because it is usually brought in part way through as a gift. So the introduction of the Nutcracker conceptually was the hardest thing, but once we sold that which I thought was brilliant when we figured out how to do it, the rest of the story just fell together. It is absolutely the traditional Nutcracker, except it holds together because the references that take place in the first act, come to life in the second act, so it is not a disconnected work.”
Ballet Jörgen performs The Nutcracker at Kitchener’s Centre in the Square Tues. Dec 28.
Coral Andrews - Coral Andrews is an independent media professional who has been writing in Canada for over 30 years.
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