Now in its 22nd consecutive season, the witty, irreverent and raucous Nut/Cracked will be presented by The Bang Group at Kaatsbaan, in Tivoli, N.Y., on December 20 and 21. As the Cultural Center’s holiday offering, there is a reason why this 65-minute reimagined Nutcracker has entertained countless numbers of delighted patrons: it is laugh-out-loud funny.
The Bang Group, founded by choreographer David Parker and dancer Jeffrey Kazin in 1995, centers rhythm and body percussion in an inventive amalgam of tap, postmodern dance, ballet, cabaret, and musical theater to forge its own kind of movement dynamism.
The vaudevillian Nut/Cracked for 15 dancers, one of The Bang Group’s most popular dances, is primarily inspired by The Nutcracker score composed in 1892 by Tchaikovsky. However, says Parker, “I discovered the Duke Ellington jazz version of The Nutcracker. That gave me the idea that I had the right to make my own Nutcracker because I could share the sensibility of Duke Ellington with my interest in rhythm. Later, I incorporated the traditional Tchaikovsky Nutcracker Suite.” Nut/Cracked also includes renditions by dance bands, the Glenn Miller Orchestra and Fred Waring & the Pennsylvanians.
The many scenes riff on beloved Nutcrackers, primarily Boston Ballet’s Dickensian version and choreographer George Balanchine’s iconic 1954 The Nutcracker for the New York City Ballet. Nut/Cracked “changes it up” with contemporary twists.
Among the delights are a duet with bubble wrap, a single noodle twining into a mouth, men and women en pointe, a snowflake section where the dancers rhythmically wipe out repeatedly, a miniature Christmas tree rising from a man’s body, a disco section and a thumb-sucking section that, says Parker, “juxtaposes (thumb-sucking with) sobriety and dignity. Those things colliding is what I think makes it funny rather than any particular joke.” (The Dance Enthusiast)
The genesis of this holiday hilarity was an insurance company advertisement Parker saw in 1992. Explains Parker, “Seeing a grown man curled in a fetal position sucking his thumb inspired me to do something with dance because I too had sucked my thumb as a child. I thought ‘how could we use that as a partnering technique?’ I was working on this during the Christmas holidays in my apartment and the TV was on. The Nutcracker played and we fooled around dancing to the music. It worked well.”
The popular bubble wrap section was inspired by the glee one feels as a child stomping on the plastic bubbles. Parker said, “That was one of the first things I thought of doing in Nut/Cracked. Somebody has to tap dance on bubble wrap. It’s not just about jumping up and down. I tried to transcend the initial joke of the whole thing by developing real choreography. What I found was that it didn't eliminate the joke, but it enhanced it.”
Slurping down a 36-inch-long noodle in the Chinese section is no easy feat especially while balancing en pointe. (The original Tchaikovsky Chinese section was titled Tea.) Parker describes the inspiration: “When I was growing up, Jewish families celebrated Christmas day by ordering Chinese takeout. The Nut/Cracked Chinese section would honor them. Rhythm as an organizing force is central to Tchaikovsky’s Nutcracker. I, too, am interested in rhythm in every section so I decided to have somebody eat a noodle for exactly the amount of time the music lasted. It's a feat of timing. The dancer gauges swallowing the noodle precisely at the end of 60 seconds."
Unlike ballet hierarchy from corps de ballet to principal dancer, “Everyone in the show,” says Parker “appears as a soloist, as well as a member of the ensemble. There’s not a hierarchy of dancers at the top, dancers in the middle and dancers at the bottom. Everybody takes their turn.”
The brainy and zany Nut/Cracked, well-worth your while, is in company with no fewer than 10 Nutcracker performances taking place in the listening area. Attending one could become your holiday tradition.
Catherine Tharin danced with the Erick Hawkins Dance Company touring nationally and internationally. She teaches dance studies and technique, is an independent dance and performance curator, choreographs, writes about dance for Side of Culture and Interlocutor, and is a reviewer for The Dance Enthusiast. She also writes for The Boston Globe. Catherine lives in Pine Plains, New York and New York City.
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