Dancing into the holidays with Carolina Ballet's diverse reimagining of The Nutcracker

The Nutcracker is a holiday classic that has been around for centuries, and Carolina Ballet is set to revive it with a new spin in 2022. This updated version of the ballet will take place in the 1950s, evoking the aesthetic of Norman Rockwell Christmas, and will feature a change in the setting of the ballet, the couples in the play, and the costumes. After two decades and over 400 performances of The Nutcracker, a fresh spin on a timeless classic is intended to inspire and connect with a modern audience.

Much like the traditional production, this year’s ballet begins with families getting together for a holiday party. However, the dancers will be intentionally cast to showcase diverse family structures, celebrating the community that many people make a focus of their holiday season. "If children are going to see The Nutcracker for the first time, I want them to have a deeper connection with what sets the storyline for the rest of the ballet by seeing something that might represent their life," said Zalman Raffael, the Artistic Director and CEO of Carolina Ballet. These updates serve to modernize a classic story, while still retaining the nostalgia and tradition of ballets performed in years past. "Our story is going to be very similar to the original, but instead of the first family entering the party being a couple with two children, it will be a single woman, and the second to enter will be a single father with two kids," said Raffael when describing the modernization of the ballet. He continued, "the third is going to be two women who bring their children and the fourth will be a heterosexual couple who brings their kids."

The ballet was very intentionally cast to celebrate interracial and diverse family structures among the families that come to the party. This creates a more authentic representation of what people's lives look like during the holidays, allowing the ballet to better connect with those watching it, especially kids seeing the play for the first time. "Having that inclusivity on stage really helps the audience and the children connect better to the story and makes them feel seen," said Terry Baker, the costume director for the production. Part of this inclusivity is how The Nutcracker will feature same-sex couples for the first time, something that has not been done before in a production of the ballet. By bringing diversity like this to the stage, the Carolina Ballet is continuing its mission to make ballet accessible for everyone. That way, everyone from children to adults can see the classic performance through a new lens and appreciate it in a different light that focuses on inclusivity, diversity, and accessibility.

For the updated classic, over 140 costumes are being reimagined to match the new era during which the storytelling takes place. "I [did] a lot of research to invoke that vibe that comes to mind when people think of Christmas and the 1950s,” said Baker. The costumes are designed to invoke a classic Americana, vintage Christmas aesthetic, similar to styles that appeared in the Christmas classics like Miracle on 34th Street or White Christmas. Many of these costumes feature green and red, A-line skirts, suits, and sweater vests, taking The Nutcracker out of Victorian England to America in the 1950s, bringing a modern element to the ballet that allows a present-day audience to connect with a more familiar time period. "Getting very period-accurate for ballet is much more challenging than for traditional theater or musicals. With ballet, you need to factor in the movement, the body, and how the costume will not hinder the dancing in any way," said Baker when asked about the work that went into creating 140 new costumes..

“We’re really trying to build a community around the arts. We’re lucky to be part of a fabric that shares a common goal of producing art. Art allows us to step outside of ourselves and our day-to-day troubles and experience something entertaining, thought-provoking, or that creates emotion,” said Raffael. For this reason, the Carolina Ballet wants to make sure that everyone has an opportunity to see the ballet, regardless of their financial situation. "I want to make sure that people from all walks of life can experience the beauty of ballet," said Raffael.