Cracking the Nutcracker
What a holiday ballet reveals about tradition, vision, and creative courage
Little did Pyotr Ilyich Tchaikovsky know when he wrote the music for The Nutcracker ballet that it would hold a Bell Company-like monopoly1 for many of its 133-year run.
Choreographer Marius Petipa (possibly with Lev Ivanov—there is some debate) created the dances to accompany Alexander Dumas’s story which was based on the 1816 tale of The Nutcracker and the Mouse King by Ernst Theodor Amadeus Hoffmann Tchaikovsky then set the choreography to music with detailed instructions from Petipa.
There are other “Christmas” ballets — Cinderella, The Red Shoes, The Snow Queen — but when many of the larger ballet companies in the U.S. generate an average of 40% of their annual budgets from The Nutcracker, who wants to mess with success?
For those who have never seen The Nutcracker, a brief synopsis might be helpful. (The first time I saw it I confess, I wasn’t entirely sure what was happening.) As a Powerpoint presentation, these would be the bullets:
Act I
The elegant Stahlbaum home on Christmas Eve, 1816. Excitement.
Godfather Drosselmeyer gives protagonist Clara a wooden nutcracker shaped like a soldier. Brother breaks it. Clara despondent. Mr. D. fixes it.
At midnight, Clara sneaks downstairs to check on her gift. Magic happens.
Room fills with an army of mice led by Mouse King. Fearsome.
The Nutcracker comes to life, battles mice. Wins. Becomes handsome prince.
Prince takes Clara to Land of Snow. Stunning.
Act II
Clara and the Prince arrive at the Kingdom of Sweets.
Sugar Plum Fairy hosts grand celebration in Clara’s honor: lots of dancing
Culmination: grand pas de deux between Sugar Plum Fairy and her Cavalier. Highest level of dancing skill required! Grand finale with everyone.
Was it all Clara’s dream? Or does she stay in this magical world? Ambiguous.
Pretty straightforward coming of age story.
ChatGPT estimates 22 distinct productions of The Nutcracker this season in the DC Metropolitan area, for a total of between 150 and 200 individual performances. All in the month of December. How does an organization stand out in this field of Nutcrackers, Sugar Plum Fairies and Mouse Kings?
One option: You reimagine it. Enter Lorraine Spiegler and Alchemy Ballet’s production of The Andalusian Nutcracker. From the website:
Under the direction of Lorraine Audeoud Spiegler, this original production is set in Granada, Spain at the legendary Alhambra Palace where young María receives a magical Andalusian Horse Nutcracker and embarks on a journey into an enchanted dream world.
The production brings together many traditions and styles in a manner that has come to be the hallmark of the young and intrepid Alchemy Ballet under the nonprofit Artists in Motion.
Medieval Andalusia brings to mind the rare, creative covivencia (“living together”) of Sephardic Jews, indigenous Christians and Muslims. This sustained, productive contact among three diverse cultures has been subject to some romanticism in modern times — selective memory often creates exemplars out of complex situations — but the advances in trigonometry, agronomy, pharmacology, surgery and astronomy were very real. See Wikipedia article here.
Spiegler’s vision for a Nutcracker set in southern Spain was clear to her from the beginning, and she set it down in a story which begins:
In the distant past, in the glittering Moorish city of Granada, Spain, young Prince Almanzor grows up within the enchanted walls of the Alhambra, the Red Castle. Surrounded by fragrant gardens, shimmering pools, and palace rooms adorned with intricate tiles and muqarnas, he spends his days reading poetry, writing his own verses of longing, and dreaming as he gazes out over the snow-capped Sierra Nevada mountains.
I can not do the story justice here, but when war threatens to exile the royal family, the prince seeks the help of a magician-cum-flamenco guitarist, Torcuato, who turns him into an Andalusian horse nutcracker so he can remain at the Alhambra. Later, Torcuato returns to the Alhambra with his magic dolls and puppet show. Maria is captivated by the horse, and later falls asleep and dreams of the Andalusian horse/prince. Instead of the original mice, a tribe of lions are turned into alabaster. Almanzor returns to human form and he and Maria journey to the Reino de los Sueños—the Realm of Dreams. Spiegler’s re-telling of the tale has an ending wrapped in dance and wonder.:
They travel together to the Sierra Nevada mountains outside of Granada, where the Snow Queen Neva appears and summons three Snow Diamonds, Snow Spirits, Snow Crystals, and Diamond Dust. With these luminous beings, each with a unique pattern of beauty, Maria and Almanzor are led into a wondrous land where the voices of dreams can be heard, and where children and youth from all places may live in peace, unity, and the shared magic.
I don’t know if you are aware of this, but the world of ballet schools is for the most part highly competitive, even aggressively so. Alchemy Ballet’s former director left suddenly and took a vast majority of students with her.
Lorraine Speigler came on board with the academy under-enrolled and struggling. Graced with her vision, indefatigable spirit and stellar reputation, , she boosted enrollment, built her team of collaborators, and marched the high road to Granada. Busy Graham (my spouse) and Lorraine collaborated in a remarkable way, identifying and recruiting a diverse group of guest artists such as would do the community of Al-Andalus proud. From the website we read:
The ballet fuses classical technique with the expressive traditions of flamenco, Moorish, Sephardic, and Middle Eastern dance and music, creating a vibrant tapestry of rhythm, storytelling, and cultural celebration. Featuring Alchemy Ballet students, pre-professional trainees, alumni, and distinguished guest artists—including Furia Flamenca’s Estela Vélez de Paredez and Daniel Paredez, legendary guitarist Torcuato Zamora, the Silk Road Dance Company, Mariana Gatto and Miguel Perez, Sopranessence, plus Sergio Masero, the prince cavalier from Madrid. The Andalusian Nutcracker honors tradition while inviting audiences to see this holiday classic in a completely new light.
As you might have noticed Torcuato is a character in the play and the actual guitarist in the ballet. A couple of notes here. Torcuato Zamora — who is originally from Granada — lives quietly in Silver Spring, and at age 90 is still teaching and performing. The king and queen of Spain had credited Torcuato with bringing the flamenco tradition to the United States six decades ago.
The puppet show that the character Torcuato brings to the Alhambra in Act One includes the characters of Maria, Almanzor, the lioness, the Andalusian horse and the magician Torcuato. The puppets were made for this performance by artist and musician Ingrid Cowan-Haas, our daughter’s piano teacher 25 years ago.
This promises to be a feast for the eyes and ears and imagination.
But don’t take my word for it. If you are in the area, come create a holiday memory for yourself, December 20 and 21 at Herndon High School, 700 Bennett Street, Herndon VA 20170. Ticket information here.
Above: Some of the Alchemy dancers, clockwise from top left: Julia Dolan as Princess Aura, Lucia Park as the Queen of the Greek Lions, Lydia Adams as the Snow Diamond and Katya Palmer as Kissy, the Spanish Doll. Photos by Chris Stark of Stark Photo Productions.
Coincidentally, there is another major celebration of Andalusia happening in the DC area: Washington Revels’ remarkable Andalusian Treasures. There are not many tickets left — so seize the day if you can! Last shows are Dec 18-20. RevelsDC.org
Apologies for this early footnote. The Bell Company formed in 1877, later becoming American Telephone and Telegraph (AT&T), held a virtual monopoly of the U.S. telephony infrastructure for 105 years until it was broken up in 1982.
I’ll be honest, even as the parent of dancers who have been involved in various Nutcracker productions cations of the past decade, I’ve never been a fan. But this production changed my mind. It was beyond anything I could have imagined and held me captivated the entire time as I watched all three shows this past weekend. So original with a beautiful fusion of so many details rent musical influences. I am sincerely excited to see how this production matures and evolves in the fire. Bravo to all!!
You all are so deeply devoted to and engaged with creating beauty, Stew. Just wonderful. Busy, thank you for sharing the video. The colors, the elegance -- I'm sure the shows will be remarkable!