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A holiday tradition for ballet beginners and aficionados: Eugene Ballet's The Nutcracker

Performers on stage for The Nutcracker
Aran (Ari) Denison
/
Provided by Eugene Ballet
Eugene Ballet Company rehearses The Nutracker at the Hult Center for the Performing arts in 2018.

The Eugene Ballet will bring The Nutcracker to the Hult Center this month. The ballet is a holiday tradition, with Tchaikovsky’s music performed live by Orchestra Next, and choreography by Toni Pimble.

Pimble, along with Jennifer Martin, is co-artistic director of the Eugene Ballet.

They spoke with KLCC’s Rachael McDonald. She asked Pimble what makes the Nutcracker a holiday favorite.

Toni Pimble: Well, first of all, it's a ballet about Christmas. It's set at Christmas time. It's the Tchaikovsky music which everyone thinks they know and I'm sure they do. The Nutcracker is a great favorite with folks. It's an uplifting and fun ballet and many people have a tradition of bringing their children to the Nutcracker.

And, since I have been doing this since 1981, it used to be that parents would bring their children and introduce them to me, and now parents bring their grandchildren and introduce them to me. So, the people have been coming for many years. A lot of folks have come up to me and said, ‘Oh, I've been coming to the Nutcracker every year for 25 years,’ which is truly astounding to me, but wonderful too.

Jennifer Martin (left) and Toni Pimble, co-artistic directors of Eugene Ballet at the KLCC studios
Rachael McDonald
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KLCC
Jennifer Martin and Toni Pimble, co-artistic directors of Eugene Ballet at the KLCC studios

McDonald: And Jennifer, what do you think it is about this particular production that is special?

Jennifer Martin: I think our rendition of this classic is very approachable in that it follows the story of the book, Hoffman's book, for the most part. So, the first half, I would say, is geared more towards families with young children. And, at intermission, if their child has reached their maximum, they can then go and they've received the majority of the story.

But for those diehard dance fans, the second act is sort of like the Olympics of ballet because there are all of these divertissements that the dancers perform. And, they're very short, but they are chock full of complicated steps and fancy movements that are very eye-catching and audience-endearing.

Perhaps people are looking for an escape, even if it's just for a few hours, or a moment of light and brightness in their lives. And I think that this is the perfect opportunity.

Pimble: I like that you used the word chock. It's like chocolate. because they are divertissements about sweets.

McDonald: Right? There's a lot of sweets in this ballet.

Pimble: There are.

McDonald: And it's not necessarily all happy because there's a darkness in the ballet, correct?

Martin: There is. However, I think that's one of the things I like about Toni's version. I'm going to use Balanchine's version, for example, George Balanchine's version of the Nutcracker, which is quite dark. Ours is not really scary. I think Toni's has a slight sense of humor and it has foreshadowing, but it is not silly by any means and it's not overly scary. For example, when Claire enters the Mouse Kingdom, a lot of the scenery and sets are painted with this iridescent or glow in the dark paint that black light activates. And so, there is that element that's kind of hidden in the scenery that the audience then is exposed to.

And this would be a good opportunity to add that if there are audience members with sensitivity to light, and specifically strobe light, this is a performance that does use strobe lighting.

McDonald: Toni, This is your last season as artistic director of Eugene Ballet. So how does it feel to be putting on the Nutcracker, which as you mentioned you've been doing since 1981?

Pimble: Can you believe that? You don’t, do you?

McDonald: It's hard to believe.

Pimble: Well, even though I am retiring as artistic director, my ballets will still be done, they'll still be performed and I will still be involved when my work is being done and actually not just only my work. I do a fair amount of costume design now. And so, I will probably be involved with that. Next season, we're probably going to do a Dracula and I've been building some costumes for Suzanne Haag’s (Eugene’s Ballet’s associate director) first full-length ballet. So that's very exciting for her to do a full-length and I'm gonna have fun creating costumes for that.

Eugene Ballet’s 2021 production of The Nutcracker performed with Orchestra Next at the Hult Center for the Performing Arts.
Aran (Ari) Denison
/
Color Code Studio
Eugene Ballet’s 2021 production of The Nutcracker performed with Orchestra Next at the Hult Center for the Performing Arts.

Martin: It's great that Toni mentions costumes because it's also important to note that largely all of the costumes and the Nutcracker, save a select few, were built by Toni.

McDonald: Wow!

Pimble: See, little nubbins for fingers!

McDonald: Is there anything else either of you would like to add about The Nutcracker?

Martin: I would like to encourage our audience members to come out and see this production. I think that we've had a lot of uncertainty in recent months. And perhaps people are looking for an escape, even if it's just for a few hours, or a moment of light and brightness in their lives. And I think that this is the perfect opportunity.

The Nutcracker serves often as a gateway for audience members who may be unfamiliar with ballet or the Hult Center. This is the perfect production for people to sort of make their entry into both the Hult Center and to see ballet.

There are children from the Eugene Ballet Academy involved in the performance as well as they dance alongside our professional company dancers. And if you're looking for an escape into a magical world and some time just for yourself with you and your family and joy, this is the perfect opportunity.

Pimble: And I would like to say that as always, we love having Orchestra Next play for us. It's wonderful to have a live orchestra in the pit. And for those folks that don't know much about Orchestra Next, it's a training orchestra.

So, the first chairs are professional, but everyone underneath is a student. So, we have students on stage, we have students in the pit. This is really a family event in a lot of ways.

The Eugene Ballet performs the Nutcracker with Orchestra Next at the Hult Center in Eugene Thursday December 19 through Sunday, Dec 22, and on Christmas Eve.

This transcript has been edited for clarity.

Copyright 2024, KLCC

Rachael McDonald is KLCC’s host for All Things Considered on weekday afternoons. She also is the editor of the KLCC Extra, the daily digital newspaper. Rachael has a BA in English from the University of Oregon. She started out in public radio as a newsroom volunteer at KLCC in 2000.
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