THE GIFT OF THE NUTCRACKER
Where: Royal Theatre, 805 Broughton St.
When: Dec. 28-30
Tickets: $18-$96 from the Royal McPherson box office (250-386-6121) or rmts.bc.ca
The Nutcracker is evergreen. It has a built-in appeal and remains relevant no matter where or when it is performed.
But for Paul Destrooper, the longtime artistic director of Ballet Victoria, change is a constant when it comes to The Gift of The Nutcracker, his company’s updated version of Tchaikovsky’s classic two-act ballet.
When you perform The Nutcracker close to two-dozen times each year — Ballet Victoria will surpass 20 performances next week — that ups the engagement of everyone involved.
“Ours is a bit different for sure, compared to a traditional Nutcracker,” Destrooper said. “And this year, we have all new projections. We have new costumes, we have different effects. And there’s a couple of numbers where we updated the choreography and made it different. That way the dancers get really excited about the production. It’s nice for them to sink their teeth into different work and continue developing.”
Several dancers in The Gift of The Nutcracker have been with Ballet Victoria for five or six years, while a number of lead dancers have surpassed the 10-year mark, Destrooper said. He no longer considers Ballet Victoria, which was founded in 2002, an emerging-artist company. “We are like a seasoned-artist company, and I think that speaks volumes to the quality of the work we present and the interest that we generate outside of Victoria.”
Destrooper took Ballet Victoria’s rendition of The Nutcracker to the United States this month for its first stateside foray since COVID halted cross-border productions in 2020. The run — which included three performances in Moscow, Idaho, and three in Prescott, Arizona — made what was already a busy schedule even busier. He’s been on the road with the production since Nov. 30, and arrived home in Victoria on Tuesday night following a string of performances that also included two shows in Maple Ridge and six in Coquitlam. Ballet Victoria will travel to Chilliwack tomorrow for its final Nutcracker performance on the Mainland.
The majority of performances thus far have been sold out, and the ones remaining likely will be, Destrooper said. The U.S. presenters were thrilled, and want the company to return with a slate of new productions, including Carmina Burana, in the near future. “They like the fact that we involve the local community,” Destrooper said. “We’re probably one of the few companies, if not the only company, that does that in Canada, so that draws some interest. I think that local participation and local involvement is something that really speaks to accessibility, to community engagement and such. I think it’s great.”
That trend will continue next week in Victoria. In addition to 12 dancers from the company, he’s hired approximately 30 musicians from the Victoria Symphony and will involve 40 students, some as young as six years old, from his own Ballet Victoria Conservatory. “We do this to give an opportunity to young dancers to work with professionals. To share the stage and get a perspective of what a full production looks like and feels like, and the responsibilities that come with that.”
His decision, in 2013, to employ members of the Victoria Symphony and not use pre-recorded music has become one of the highlights of the production. That approach is unique to Victoria for performances of The Gift of The Nutcracker, he said.
“Everywhere on tour we use recorded music, but in Victoria, it is done with the Symphony. That adds a new dimension and a completely different level of experience for the students. The ability to perform with a symphony gives a dimension to the work that is unique, because there’s always going to be slight differences. It gives people the opportunity to play with the musicality a bit more, to sometimes be challenged a bit more and sometimes to find new ways of tackling the work. It deepens their technical and artistic abilities, in a unique way.”
