Wednesday, January 08, 2025
A Visual Feast: The Fantastical Wigs, Makeup and Costumes for ENB's New Nutcracker
Pointe Magazine: As English National Ballet debuts its new Nutcracker this month, the designs are taking center stage. Choreographed by artistic director Aaron S. Watkin and Arielle Smith in honor of ENB’s 75th anniversary, this production is a visual feast, with sets and costumes by Dick Bird that include elaborate wigs and makeup.
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I love the nutcracker, it is possibly my favorite show of all time. A reason I love it (among many) is that because it is redone a ridiculous amount of times, there is always a competition to make next year's show even better, and to make your company's Nutcracker stand out from everyone else's Nutcracker. That leads to some very ingenious ideas that probably NEVER would have appeared if it was a one-off show. The fact that it's done so often forces people to re-interpret the show and reimagine it over and over. This costume designer was very smart to point out that the second act features things like coffee, tea, and chocolates because back when the Nutcracker was written, those were luxuries and felt very exotic and special. However, nowadays, most people going to watch the Nutcracker have easy access to all of those things. So, the idea to reinvent the characters in the second act to sustain that element of a rare, faraway treat is genius.. I am getting excited just thinking about watching an act where instead of candy canes and tea, the dances feature things like the Egyptian drink sahlab and the Chinese treat tanghulu. Aside from it being exciting and new for the audience, I feel it's moving towards cultural appreciation and away from appropriation. There's a lot of opportunity to showcase and appreciate cultures from around the world in the Nutcracker that I wish more ballet companies would capitalize on, rather than just giving us another uninspired 'sexy Arabian' dance.. come on, you can do way better.
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