Ballet Des Moines' new characters add modern twist to Tchaikovsky's 'The Nutcracker'

This article originally published in December 2021. Portions of it were updated with 2022 information about "The Nutcracker."

Even though Tom Mattingly worked on roughly a dozen productions of "The Nutcracker," none have quite been like what he's helped create for Ballet Des Moines. No one has.

“We're the only professional 'Nutcracker' in the state (making these changes). We are really setting ourselves apart," said Mattingly, director for Ballet Des Moines, in 2021 as he prepared to lead his dancers through restructured portions of the classic Christmas ballet.

As Ballet Des Moines and companies around the world prepared to remount the seasonal show, many deemed the second act of Russian composer Pyotr Ilyich Tchaikovsky's now-classic ballet "The Nutcracker," adapted from E. T. A. Hoffmann's story "The Nutcracker and the Mouse King," outdated in its traditional depictions of various cultures.

Most readers will be familiar with the storyline behind one of the world's most popular ballets. Clara, a young girl, receives the gift of a nutcracker from her godfather, Drosselmeyer, on Christmas Eve. That night, she dreams of her treasured nutcracker battling a legion of monarchical mice until she turns the tides of the fight with the fling of a shoe.

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While the first portion of the show features entirely new choreography from Mattingly, the story should be familiar to "Nutcracker" devotees.

The big changes come in the show's second act when Clara and the nutcracker-turned-prince witness Tchaikovsky's interpretation of various cultural dances. That section has been overhauled.

"We knew that they didn't feel right to us anymore," explained Blaire Massa, executive director of Ballet Des Moines. "Ballet is a very traditional art form, so lots of excuses have been made for a long time. We just felt like the time had come, and was potentially overdue, so we have made a commitment to make change quite a while ago.”

COVID-19 caused the ballet to cancel the 2020 show, but Massa and the ballet company used the time to devise a new way of presenting the 130-year-old piece.

“We’re really packaging it in a way that makes it more accessible to everyone in the community," Mattingly said. "It is not precious. It is not elitist. It is for everybody.”

'Re-think telling the story of the beautiful score'

Ballet Des Moines may have staked its claim as the first professional ballet in Iowa to make big changes addressing cultural appropriation, but the conversation has been global.

In 2021, London's Royal Ballet tweaked an Arabian dance over concerns it was overly evocative of a harem and the Scottish Ballet hired choreographer Annie Au to rework a portion set in China.

In 2017, New York City Ballet also made changes to choreography and costuming for the Chinese Tea segment of the ballet, reexamining its use of rice patty hats, geisha wigs and other costumes.

Ballet Des Moines took a different approach. Though Massa considered bringing in choreographers from different cultures to tweak segments, the ballet ultimately decided not to attempt these stories.

"Even if we got input and were as inclusive as we possibly can be, which we work hard to be, we didn't feel super comfortable telling someone else's story on our stage," Massa said. "Instead of making incremental change that we still weren't 100% comfortable with, we decided to let go of anything that felt dated or like it was holding us back and re-think telling the story of the beautiful score."

While the music from Tchaikovsky's remains unchanged, the first act of the show features new choreography — not uncommon for regional ballet productions — but remains easily recognizable.

As curtains rise for the second act, however, audiences experience a vision unique to Ballet Des Moines.

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'Absolutely stunning' change in motion

The betta fish in the re-imagined "The Nutcracker" excited Sarah Dornink the most.

"The second half is very dreamlike, and it is (Clara) sleeping so we can have a very ethereal and magical feel about all the costumes," said Dornink, the ballet's wardrobe director. "The betta fish is probably the most fun."

In an unusual twist, a portion of the dance is being designed around the function of a costume rather than vice versa.

"What she has made is absolutely stunning," Mattingly said. "And I think for a lot of the public that's going to be their favorite character.”

The betta fish appears in a reimagined version of the Arabian dance, now reinterpreted with an oceanic theme. In this revised portion, dancers representing the ocean current move a ballerina dressed as a betta fish across the stage.

Dornink designed the bright orange betta fish costume with swaths of fabric attached to the base of the dancer's dress at the spine while also connecting fabric to her legs to accentuate movement.

"Every time the dancer does an extension in any direction, you see the tail unfurl and stay in that fanned-out position," Mattingly said. "[The costumes] gives the illusion of swimming and floating through the water.”

Though this and other changes represent thematic shifts, Mattingly's choreography is still heavily influenced by more classical iterations of the show. He cites versions from the Richmond Ballet and Ballet West, places he spent much of his career as a professional dancer, as influential in his reimagining.

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His hope is that, as Ballet Des Moines performs this updated "Nutcracker" years into the future, audiences familiar with Tchaikovsky's classic and those new to it can fall in love with this staging.

"I think, in a lot of ways, our production is incredibly American in that America is a melting pot; it’s rooted in tradition, but it’s continually evolving, changing, growing, and that’s exactly what our 'Nutcracker' is doing," Mattingly said. "So for the diehard ballet fans that might be familiar with more famous 'Nutcracker's, you will see little elements and little nods here and there to those productions...

"It’s not changed just for change's sake," he said. "It’s modernizing, it’s streamlining, it’s highlighting, it’s celebrating the tradition of 'Nutcracker' and doing it in a way that we feel appeals to anyone and everyone.”

How to attend

For 2022, Ballet Des Moines has announced six performances of "The Nutcracker" at Hoyt Sherman Place, 1501 Woodland Ave., starting with a 7 p.m. performance on Thursday, followed by a performance at the same time Friday. There will be two shows on both Saturday — at 1 and 7 p.m. — and Sunday — at 1 and 5 p.m. Tickets range from $32 to $82, available at hoytsherman.org.

Additionally, the ballet has partnered with CultureAll, a nonprofit that encourages the education of cultural diversity in Iowa, as well as Oakridge Neighborhood Services and the city of Algona to provide more educational performances geared toward young students in the area.

"'The Nutcracker' western holiday traditions are beautiful and warm and they can be more inclusive," Massa said. "One of the ways they can be inclusive is for us to, side by side, share the stage with celebrations of other cultures and other holiday traditions. I’m really excited that we are on the bleeding edge of transforming what education looks like at a dance company.”

Isaac Hamlet covers arts, entertainment and culture at the Des Moines Register. Reach him at ihamlet@gannett.com or 319-600-2124, or follow him on Twitter at @IsaacHamlet.

This article originally appeared on Des Moines Register: Ballet Des Moines reimagines 'The Nutcracker' with a modern twist