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Tuesday, November 30, 2021
'The Nutcracker,' a holiday tradition, goes on amid pandemic protocols
NPR: NPR's A Martinez speaks with Washington Post dance critic Sarah Kaufman about how The Nutcracker ballet is responding to COVID-19 concerns this year.
2 comments:
Monica Tran
said...
So back in Oklahoma, I got to be on the fly rail for what the Oklahoma City Ballet called, "Nutcracker: Short and Sweet", where they condensed the entire show into an hour long production, and they literally told the story of how she fell asleep and met the Rat King in 15 minutes. Then, in usual Nutcracker style, they proceeded to do some slightly out of touch and problematic international dances. It was a lot of fun to be on a fly heavy show with multiple scene changes and fly cues but wow did that show kill me. But every night, the seats were full in our LORT D theater and everyone ate it up like gumdrops. I get why it sells well and I get that most families have a tradition of seeing The Nutcracker every year, but at the drop of the hat some rehearsals would get cancelled because dancers were being sweaty and taking heavy breaths offstage taking their mask off. And we produced this last year during COVID restrictions which was weird in it of itself haha.
I’m not sure what production company or location they are referring to for Covid protocols for this version of The Nutcracker, but the commentary is interesting all the same. It seems that The Nutcracker is to the Ballet world what A Christmas Carol is to the theater world. Not being able to have those particular sell out productions can and did do some damage all around. Children being unable to get vaccinated poses another concern but it seems like this company is being very one top of it with their casting choices. I think that it is smart that live entertainment companies are requiring everyone to be masked in rehearsals. I can’t imagine the difficulty level it would be to dance with masks on but I believe that it may seem worth it to dancers to have work again. I am going to work on The Nutcracker at the Pittsburgh Ballet Theatre and I am looking forward to the energy that will come because of the opportunity that people have to work on this show again.
2 comments:
So back in Oklahoma, I got to be on the fly rail for what the Oklahoma City Ballet called, "Nutcracker: Short and Sweet", where they condensed the entire show into an hour long production, and they literally told the story of how she fell asleep and met the Rat King in 15 minutes. Then, in usual Nutcracker style, they proceeded to do some slightly out of touch and problematic international dances. It was a lot of fun to be on a fly heavy show with multiple scene changes and fly cues but wow did that show kill me. But every night, the seats were full in our LORT D theater and everyone ate it up like gumdrops. I get why it sells well and I get that most families have a tradition of seeing The Nutcracker every year, but at the drop of the hat some rehearsals would get cancelled because dancers were being sweaty and taking heavy breaths offstage taking their mask off. And we produced this last year during COVID restrictions which was weird in it of itself haha.
I’m not sure what production company or location they are referring to for Covid protocols for this version of The Nutcracker, but the commentary is interesting all the same. It seems that The Nutcracker is to the Ballet world what A Christmas Carol is to the theater world. Not being able to have those particular sell out productions can and did do some damage all around. Children being unable to get vaccinated poses another concern but it seems like this company is being very one top of it with their casting choices. I think that it is smart that live entertainment companies are requiring everyone to be masked in rehearsals. I can’t imagine the difficulty level it would be to dance with masks on but I believe that it may seem worth it to dancers to have work again. I am going to work on The Nutcracker at the Pittsburgh Ballet Theatre and I am looking forward to the energy that will come because of the opportunity that people have to work on this show again.
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