PREVIEW
What: The Gift
Where: Royal Theatre
When: 2 p.m., Dec. 27, 28 and 29
Tickets: Starting at $30 (250-386-6121 or rmts.bc.ca)
When Ballet Victoria presents The Gift to Victoria, each jeté and pirouette will be more finely tuned than usual.
This is the fifth season the company has performed its adaptation of The Nutcracker, set to Tchaikovsky’s traditional score. The Gift plays the Royal Theatre following an eight-city, 23-day tour of Canada and the U.S. When the 12-dancer company arrives after performing in such cities as Calgary, Revelstoke, Chilliwack and Prescott, Arizona, it will have travelled 7,200 kilometres in two vans and a truck.
“It’s been amazing. Everywhere it’s been sold out, with huge standing ovations,” said artistic director Paul Destrooper, who choreographed the ballet.
“It’s hard-core, old-school touring like in the old days. It’s been fun. The dancers are great.”
Each year, Destrooper tweaks The Gift to keep it fresh. This season, certain touches — such as having a saxophonist play Dave Brubeck’s Take Five — have been dropped. Instead, Ballet Victoria — teaming with the Victoria Symphony — is staging a more orthodox version. Destrooper says this is partly in deference to “some of the people who thought it was kind of sacrilege to tinker with The Nutcracker.”
Nonetheless, it’s not a traditional take. In keeping with 21st-century attitudes, Act II divertissements, such as the Arabian and Chinese dances, which Destrooper finds racist and sexist, have been altered. Some female characters have a feisty streak reminiscent of such Disney characters as Elsa and Jasmine.
As well, this alt-Nutcracker is a pacifist’s delight.
“There’s no murdering of mice and maiming of nutcrackers. And I traded the Nutcracker’s sword for a candy cane,” Destrooper said.
The mysterious Drosselmeyer, played by Destrooper, becomes “Uncle Dross.” He arrives from his exotic travels with a box (reminiscent of Pandora’s Box) that he instructs Clara not to open.
“Ours is a 21st-century tale with some of the old-school fairy-tale components, where if you do something you’re told not to do, something is going to happen,” Destrooper said.
Next year, Ballet Victoria will celebrate its 15th anniversary. Destrooper, who was born in Montreal and educated in Switzerland, took over a decade ago. Since then, the small company has remained in the black. Its annual budget has grown from $80,000 to $600,000; the number of yearly productions has gone from one to four.
It’s not easy running a full-time ballet company (the dancers have 42-week contracts) in a smaller city. Destrooper said he relies heavily on the help of volunteers.
Nonetheless, after three weeks of performing to cheering crowds, he’s feeling upbeat.
“When you get that kind of feedback, you think, hey, we’re doing the right things. And Victoria should be proud.”