INTERVIEW: Live orchestra, choir to enliven ‘Nutcracker’ in NJ
Photo: American Repertory Ballet’s The Nutcracker features dancers Nanako Yamamoto and Aldeir Monteiro. Photo courtesy of Lois Greenfield / Provided by American Repertory Ballet with permission.
American Repertory Ballet will be presenting one of those rare delights during the holiday season: performances of The Nutcracker with an actual live orchestra and choir. Too often, Pyotr Ilyich Tchaikovsky’s classic ballet is brought to life with only dancers beneath the proscenium. The music tends to be piped in from a recording, but ARB is different.
The company presents its Nutcracker Friday, Dec. 21 to Sunday, Dec. 23 at the State Theatre in New Brunswick, New Jersey. On the State’s gargantuan stage will be approximately 100 dancers: That’s a lot of angels and snowflakes.
ARB’s artistic director Douglas Martin leads the production, which has been going strong for more than 50 years. He will utilize dancers from the Princeton Ballet School, ARB’s official school.
One of the many performers at the State Theatre will be Nanako Yamamoto, who first performed the central role of Clara in her native Japan. She has also performed at the Royal Ballet Summer School and Birmingham Royal Ballet. With this latter company, she actually had the privilege of performing for his Royal Highness Prince Charles and the Duchess of Cornwall. For ARB, she has danced lead roles in The Nutcracker (Sugar Plum Fairy and Snow Queen), Confetti, Sea Shadow, Carmen and Glaznov Variation.
Recently, Hollywood Soapbox exchanged emails with Yamamoto. Questions and answers have been slightly edited for style.
When did you first fall in love with dancing?
I honestly think that was when I walked in my first class when I was 5. Of course, everything I watched and learned ever since then inspired me to love dance even more and more.
What do you like most about working with ARB?
I love many opportunities and different roles we get to dance here, and I love the feeling of how close we are like family.
From a dancer’s perspective, is it difficult to perform The Nutcracker and the choreography?
We each have many roles to perform for The Nutcracker, so keeping every role in great shape takes a lot of rehearsals. We push our bodies really hard everyday, which is a huge challenge. We have the most shows during The Nutcracker season in a very short time, so more than just performing, maintaining our body and keeping it healthy the whole time is a very important part.
Do you have a favorite character to dance in The Nutcracker?
Every role has its own feelings attached to it, but I must say I do enjoy [the] Sugar Plum Fairy pas de deux. The music is so grand, and sharing the stage with my Cavalier is something I really enjoy.
By John Soltes / Publisher / John@HollywoodSoapbox.com
American Repertory Ballet will present The Nutcracker Friday, Dec. 21 through Sunday, Dec. 23 at the State Theatre in New Brunswick, New Jersey. Click here for more information and tickets.
