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New Mexico Ballet Company's sweet spin on 'The Nutcracker' comes to Popejoy
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The Sugar Plum Fairy, sweets, mice and more will be dancing and leaping across the Popejoy Hall stage during the New Mexico Ballet Company’s “The Nutcracker,” opening Saturday, Nov. 29.
“‘(The) Nutcracker’ is just a really wonderful way to expose audiences to ballet. Not everyone is into the perfect classical ballet, like ‘Swan Lake’ or ‘Cinderella’ or ‘Sleeping Beauty,’” Kelly Ruggiero, New Mexico Ballet Company artistic director, said. “So this is a great way to be able to experience ballet, because it’s a holiday classic.”
She said the ballet company’s version of “The Nutcracker” is a mix between classical and contemporary ballet, with “The Land of Sweets” act leaning more contemporary. Last year, she made “The Land of Sweets” larger and has continued that tradition.
“The fact that it’s a sweets type of act, I wanted to just really hone in on that … anything you could think of that reminded you of sweets,” Ruggiero said.
When choreographing “The Land of Sweets,” Ruggiero said she started with meringue.
“I’m sticking with the same theme of really projecting sweets in the second act,” Ruggiero said. “We still have our chocolate, caramel, tea, meringue, cinnamon and bonbons for variations, but I’ve also added a few new roles.”
Ruggiero made this change because “The Land of Sweets” traditionally has been a portrayal of cultural stereotypes. She said she wanted to pull back from these images and movements, and instead, she added roles, such as four baby bonbons.
“This story is uniquely ours in terms of how we’ve portrayed it,” Ruggiero said.
There are over 90 youth and adult cast members in this year’s performance, consisting of local dancers from the NMBC, with principal roles filled by dancers from the San Francisco Ballet and New York City Ballet. Ruggiero said the story’s framework is there, but there are different takes on how characters and choreography are presented as new people step into roles.
“I think that most dancers, their first exposure to performances, generally, is ‘The Nutcracker,’ because it allows for children in a younger age group to be able to participate,” Ruggiero said. “And so I think it’s one of their first exposures to dance, and both from an audience level and from a dancer level on stage.”
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She said the show creates a joyful atmosphere for audiences and even after directing “The Nutcracker” for many years, she still finds enchantment in the show.
“It’s very, very magical, even as an adult and knowing my own career choreography, and knowing what’s about to happen every single time,” Ruggiero said. “I’m still always pleasantly surprised. And that’s kind of the magic of theater and live performance, live ballet, live music.”
