(12.26) The Festival Ballet Providence will present a revamped version of its annual holiday classic, The Nutcracker, featuring new sets, new costumes, and new choreography by artistic curator Yury Yanowsky. And for the first time, the ballet will be performed at The Vets, offering twice as many performances as in years past.
New additions include a dancing bear in the Party Scene and darling snow fairies in Snow Scene. Act II features the iconic Mother Ginger and her Polichinelles, with a massive dress rising twelve feet off the ground and little dancers underneath ready to burst forth. A new Chinese divertissement, choreographed with assistance of FBP Faculty member Chu Ling, will bring authenticity to work, and the beloved Waltz of the Flowers and the Trepak* will remind audiences of the magic of the holidays.
The new sets and costumes include a gigantic Christmas Tree that grows to thirty-eight feet tall. All this while a children’s cast of dozens of young dancers perform alongside the FBP Company of resident artists.
* Miriam-Webster defines trepak as “a fiery Ukrainian folk dance performed by men and featuring the leg-flinging prisiadka.”
(Seen here is Kirsten Evans as the Sugar Plum Fairy. Photograph by Ian Travis Barnard.)
Starts Friday, December 17 thru 26, The Nutcracker, The Vets, One Avenue of Arts, (directions)