Why The Nutcracker?
Ballet was my first love, and The Nutcracker was the gateway drug. The ballet is a cultural icon so wholly incorporated into the zeitgeist that we can’t imagine the holiday season without it. But the source material, the German Romantic roots of the original E.T.A. Hoffmann fairytale, is a treasure trove that has been largely left behind. My unwavering goal with this project has been to reintroduce this forgotten source material while paying homage to the tradition of classical ballet and the cultural importance of the holiday ritual.
Citizens of Confiturembourg
For the last three years, I've been choreographing and devising a new production piece by piece. I began in 2021 with the sweets: chocolate, coffee, tea, candy canes, and marzipan danced by five artists. In my vision, the second act should be like a carnival: pagan, disorderly, revelry, post-harvest, misrule, upside-down fantasy to contrast the practical domesticity of the party scene in Act I.
Next step
In 2022, I choreographed the roles of Marie and Drosselmeyer, anchoring them in the E.T.A. Hoffmann text and highlighting Drosselmeyer as the representative of fantasy and imagination who leads Marie away from the banality of domestic life and toward creativity, beauty, and the sublime.
Queering the Second Act
In 2023, I choreographed and directed a short film featuring a dancing Mother Ginger and two male-identified dancers stepping into the iconic roles of the Sugar Plum Fairy and her Cavalier, challenging traditional norms within the dance community. The piece is a bold exploration of male/male partnering and LGBTQ+ narratives, symbolizing a commitment to amplifying diverse voices and stories within the arts while highlighting the celebration of eccentricity and 'queerness' of the original fairytale by E.T.A. Hoffman.
Photos by Vanessa Owen, Chadi El-Khoury & Sarah Walker, courtesy of Dark Circles Contemporary Dance