What to know
- The Nutcracker is celebrating 30 years at the National Ballet of Canada, with veteran dancers and coaches passing down knowledge from the original 1995 cast.
- Choreographer James Kudelka’s high standards shape the production, giving dancers room to grow into roles and keeping the show internationally renowned.
- Costumes and sets require continuous rebuilding, repairs, and adaptations, especially for iconic pieces like the Sugar Plum Fairy’s tutu.
- Detailed props, soft “food fight” items, and lifelike animal costumes play a major role in creating the show’s magical world, many of them still in use after two decades.
Celebrating 30 years of history, ballet classic The Nutcracker has left thousands of audiences enchanted with glittering land, magical creatures, and Christmas vibes. Here are some backstage secrets you might not know about the classic.
Whether you’re a ballet connoisseur or holiday enthusiast, you’ve probably seen or heard about The Nutcracker. Produced annually by the National Ballet of Canada, its longest running show has become a tradition for many at this time of the year.
With over 689 performances since its opening in 1995, the presentation has brought more than 1.3 million people to the theatres, and generated $96 million in revenue.
This year, the iconic holiday staple is commemorating its 30th year, and it’s back at the Four Seasons Centre for the Performing Arts with a series of performances from Dec. 5–31. To celebrate the milestone year of the show, Now Toronto got a glimpse of its backstage production to reveal some things about The Nutcracker you might not see on stage.
A ROLE FOR EVERY DANCER
With decades of production, much of the staff behind The Nutcracker have been with the National Ballet for almost as long as the show has been on stage.
That is the case with Rex Harrington, who originally played Peter (the Nutcracker himself) 30 years ago, and now continues to use his expertise and years of experience as the production’s Rehearsal Director and Principal Coach.
For Harrington, over the years the show has become both a holiday tradition and a gateway for those who want to experience ballet for the first time.
“The Nutcracker is a tradition that…first [started] in 1892, so it’s over 100 years old, and it’s still going. And I think the reason that it’s still going is because it’s one of the most beloved ballets.”
The Arrell Family Apprentice Programme Director, Greta Hodgkinson, also starred alongside Harrington in the ballet as the original Snow Queen. For her, it was an honour to continue to work with choreographer James Kudelka, and pass on her knowledge to future generations of dances.
“It’s such an honour, and something that I think a lot of dancers hope to have in their career: that experience…and obviously, to have created roles in such an iconic ballet like The Nutcracker, a ballet that comes around every year, is sort of extra special. We’re so happy to now be still involved with the production, and being able to pass on a lot of our experiences.”
The dancers explain that Kudelka, as the mind behind the entire production, can be very demanding, pushing for perfect techniques and details that make a difference in the final storytelling.
“He comes in every year and for a week, terrorizes the company and makes them rise up to what his standard is. He has a really high standard of the technique and the things of it and in the partnering. So, everyone gets very nervous, and especially people who haven’t worked with him,” Harrington jokingly said.
But it is Kudelka’s push for excellence that keeps the Canadian production as one of the top interpretations of the classic in the world, one that even renowned dancers classify as the best one.
Artistic Director Hope Muir explains that the fact the ballet plays every year also allows Kudelka to require dancers to begin with smaller characters and evolve into more important roles in order to get acquainted with the characters’ complex story and the team.
“The fact that James has involved technique that can be advanced in terms of as you move through the ballet, it becomes a good marker for one’s career. And I think that if you don’t become a Sugar Plum, there is still a path for you to become a Baba or to become a bee. There are different things for different skill sets.”
A FIGHT AGAINST TIME: COSTUMES
Renowned designer Santo Loquasto is the mind behind The Nutcracker’s original set and costumes. Besides the Christmas classic, Loquasto has collaborated with dozens of choreographers, producers, and filmmakers across the globe, having received a series of awards in recognition of his work.
Resident Cutter Christopher Read has been a part of the National Ballet for more than 40 years, and recalls the making of the ballet’s original costumes.
“They got Santo, who was a Broadway designer, and they shot the fabric and sent it up to us. So, the building was packed with people working [in] the storage room, on the other side of the other building that had three or four different teams of people working there. There were people in the basement working, in the hallway, wherever there was space,” he told Now Toronto.
Since The Nutcracker is the company’s longest running show, with several performances every year, costumes were built both to look good on stage, and also survive decades of wear and tear.
Head of Wardrobe Production Stacy Dimitropoulos says that costumes are originally built to withstand over 20 years on stage, but may need constant repairs, and sometimes even to be rebuilt from scratch, while still maintaining their original look.
That was the case with the iconic, sparkly costume of one of the show’s most popular characters: the Sugar Plum Fairy, which needed to be rebuilt entirely due to significant wear and tear.
“When you look at the Sugar Plum and see how complicated it is, it was a real forensics project to come up with the trims and the fabrics, and we worked really closely with Santo Loquasto, the designer, to make choices and decisions, because a lot of these fabrics and trims we can no longer get from when it was originally built, which would have been about 31 years ago.”
The hard work paid off, with the six new Sugar Plum costumes looking like a perfect replica of the original one.
Other popular characters, including Peter, the Nutcracker himself, still use the original costume, which doesn’t come without its challenges.
“When they start the show, because there’s not that many of them, and they do share costumes, it gets wet with sweat. So, it’s like if you went to the gym and you ran on a treadmill wearing this, it starts to absorb moisture, so sometimes at the beginning of Nutcracker, this jacket never dries out,” Read said.
In order to deodorize and prepare the costume for other dancers, costume staff utilizes fans to dry out the sweat and what they call a “magic spray” made with water and vodka, which is especially useful when the company carries more than one performance a day.
With multiple dancers often playing the same character, the costumes also have to be adapted to different body types. Dimitropoulos explains that costume workers usually build multiples of each costume with adjustable bars to adapt to different dancers, but adapting can be a challenge.
“It is one of our biggest challenges. If we have a dancer that is very tall or very small, making the adjustments for those dancers, and also reversible for the next year when it’s a different dancer, or 10 years from now,” she added.
BRINGING THE MAGIC TO LIFE: PROPS
The magic of The Nutcracker wouldn’t be the same without its enchanting atmosphere and incredible props, from snowflakes to animals that run across the stage.
Similar to the costumes, Stage Manager Jeff Morris says most of The Nutcracker’s props were first built over 20 years ago, also designed by Loquasto, who considered everything, from how the audience will see them on stage to how characters will manipulate them.
“He understands that we’re not going to use metal cloche on the turkey, which is actually all latex and paint and plastic decor, but the cloche is soft as well, because one of the little chefs dunks it on top of another one’s head,” he explained.
Set during the holiday season, food is a big part of The Nutcracker, with props that mimic broccoli, liquor bottles, and even a convincing turkey, which allows characters to separate its legs and even pull out its bones.
Besides being sturdy and looking accurate, Morris says food props also need to withstand manipulation by characters, including a food fight. For that reason, this faux food needs to be strong, but also soft enough not to injure dancers on stage.
Another important factor in The Nutcracker are the animals. From bears to rats to horses, they appear various times throughout the show, interacting with dancers and amazing the audience.
The show’s incredible horses, for example, act like both props and costume, being worn by dancers and moving through the stage so convincingly that audiences have even mistaken them for real animals.
“When I run a show as a stage manager, I have a video monitor that looks at the conductor, and I can also see a swath of seats in the orchestra as well. And when the horse enters the stage, I can see everyone’s going, ‘Is that real?’ So, it’s a great moment,” Morris said.
Next time that you head to the theatre to catch The Nutcracker, look beyond the stage, and consider every detail that makes the magic happen. For more information about the show, visit the National Ballet of Canada’s website.
