But it was only in the 1990s, I’m ashamed to say,when a friend got me in for free, that I saw the Milwaukee Ballet. The show wasbeautiful but somehow remote or, anyway, not exciting enough to hook me. Butnow, after seeing Michael Pink’s smart, welcoming Cinderella as danced by the current company, I’m a cheerleader forthe group. So if you’ve been feeling too avant-garde, or too broke, to see theBallet, I urge you to get over it. At 20 bucks, it’s not expensive.
Yes, you may say, but The Nutcracker?
Reinventing that ballet was not on Michael Pink’slist of dream projects when he arrived from Britain to take the job of artisticdirector in 2002, but the existing version fell short of his standard. He alsounderstood that, much more so than in Europe,Americans have embraced this Russian ballet as a holiday tradition. He believesthe reason people want to see it every year is that it’s become generational:Adults who grew up with it want to bring their children. He’s met Milwaukeeanswho swear they’ll never attend a ballet, but when he mentions The Nutcracker, add: “Oh, we see thatevery year!”
Another story: When I was a teenager, an elderlyman, about whom I strangely remember nothing other than this incident, asked meif I liked Tchaikovsky. “No,” I said with a shudder, “I’m over him.” The man, aprophet, was kind: “Trust me. You’ll come back.” Today I understand why thechoreographer Matthew Bourne’s Nutcrackerhas a dancer start madly conducting “Waltz of the Flowers” at that tune’sclimax, as though no dancing could possibly match its glory.
I’ve learned that dancers need the impossible. Pinkexplained that in order to keep great dancers here, it’s essential to challengethem with difficult choreography that allows them to expand their skills andgrow as artists. The Nutcracker isthe only long run of the season, so it’s the sole opportunity for a variety ofcompany dancers to play the principal roles. It’s crucial to the company’sartistic survival that the choreography take them to their limits and beyond.It’s also the best chance for children in the Ballet’s school to getperformance experience. Sixty children have roles. In Cinderella, I was impressed by Pink’s refusal to patronize orexploit the child dancers, whose futures are in some way at stake.
Art can change the world in many ways.
Pink’s Nutcrackernarrative offers two sets of children, one teenaged, one younger. Clara, towhom the toy maker Drosselmeyer gives the nutcracker as a holiday gift, and herbrother Fritz are young enough to experience the show’s dream journey as agiddy adventure. Pink believes children of that age would never sit quietlyduring the Act Two dances set to the ballet’s most famous music, so he has theminterfere in various ways. Drosselmeyer brings not just the nutcracker, butalso his teenaged nephew Karl, who has a soft spot for Clara’s older sisterMarie. Karl and Marie take the journey, too, but for them it’s a love story.They get to dance the grand pas de deux with its music to die for.
Act One lets us come to know and care about thesepeople; plus, it offers the giant rat battle and the toy train flight to the Land of Snow.
So, I think, yes, The Nutcracker.
The Nutcracker runsDec. 11-27 at the Marcus Center for the PerformingArts.
