Category: Arts in Education

Options for Streaming the Nutcracker Ballet – December 2022

JoAnne Tucker / / Arts in Education, Current Dance Events, Dance History

For as long as I can remember, Nutcracker performances and the holiday season have gone together. Many dancers have early memories of being in a Nutcracker.  From major ballet companies to small regional companies, energies have gone into creating Nutcracker performances to delight local audiences and to help support the company financially, as shows are usually well attended.  Even some modern companies have ventured into their own interpretations.  Donald Byrd created the Harlem Nutcracker back in 1996 but unfortunately by 2001 it had financially bankrupted his company.  He is now recreating the work in Seattle, with more financial care, and this year he has offered the Harlem Nutcracker Teaser to be followed by a full production next year.  Mark Morris created The Hard Nut which is set to Tchaikovsky’s 1982 score.  It takes inspiration from the “comic artist Charles Burns, whose art is personal and deeply instilled with archetypal concepts of guilt, childhood, adolescent sexuality, and poignant nostalgic portrayals of post-war America” (Wikipedia). The Hard Nut was performed this year at the Detroit Opera House.

For this blog I am going to share three different Nutcrackers which you can stream online.  New York City Ballet’s Nutcracker created by George Balanchine is available to watch on Hulu.  Disney Plus has a brand-new Hip-Hop Nutcracker which has some surprise cameo performances.  Netflix has Debbie Allen’s Dance Dreams: Hot Chocolate Nutcracker which is a documentary about her school and shows the process from audition to performance of her Nutcracker which involves many students and even some teachers.

On Hulu, The New York City Ballet production is the classical Nutcracker we usually think about.  It had its original premiere in 1954 created by George Balanchine to the music of Peter Tchaikovsky.  Like the original Nutcracker ballet created in 1892 by Marius Petipa, it is in two acts.  The libretto was adapted from Hoffmann’s 1816 short story The Nutcracker and the Mouse King.  The version on Hulu was filmed in 1993 adapted by Peter Martins with narration by Kelvin Klein.

The New York City Ballet website informs us that the production involves all “90 dancers in the company, 62 musicians, 40 stagehands and more than 125 children in two alternating casts from the School of American Ballet.”

The stage elements are amazing with a Christmas tree that grows from 12 feet to 41 feet and a bed that floats through the sky.  While it is filmed beautifully, I sometimes was frustrated by the close-ups when I really wanted to have a full view of the stage.  The dancing is outstanding with Darci Kistler as the Sugar Plum Fairy and her partner Damian Woetzel as Cavalier.  Kyra Nichols is beautiful as Dewdrop.  The children from the school are well trained and fun to watch as party guests, soldiers, angels, and mice.  I was surprised that the young boy playing  Drosselmeier’s nephew was Macaulay Culkin, best known for Home Alone.  And sure, enough Culkin did indeed study at the School of American Ballet.

On Netflix is an original documentary  produced by Shondraland titled Dance Dreams: Hot Chocolate Nutcracker.  It focuses on Debbie Allen, who had an outstanding award-winning career on television, in theaters and the movies as a dancer, singer and actress.  In 2001 she formed the Debbie Allen Dance Academy (DADA).  In 2008 she created Hot Chocolate Nutcracker. The documentary was created in 2020. While the documentary opens with Debbie Allen coaching young children to the music of Tchaikovsky, the ballet also incorporates a variety of other music and styles.  200 children from the ages of 4 and older participate in the ballet. We never see The Hot Chocolate Nutcracker from beginning to end; instead we are given a backstage look at how it is put together from the children’s auditions to rehearsals to backstage before the performance.  Excerpts from the performance are included.

Woven into the documentary is Debbie Allen’s biography.  Teachers at the DADA are interviewed, as well as several students.  A few students are followed in more detail sharing their dreams and frustrations of having a career in dance.  Debbie Allen’s coaching of the dancers is very interesting as she treats them as professionals and expects them to behavior appropriately.  At one point she insists they stop talking or get fired!!

Savion Glover is guest choreographer, and we see several excerpts where tap dancing is featured. This production is filled with high energy and lots of imagination. The young dancers are well rehearsed and many of the dancers have participated in the ballet over several years (as do dancers from the School of American Ballet in the NYC Ballet’s Nutcracker).  They give 8 performances each year with a total of 11,520 seats and ticket sales of $450,000.  This is a major fundraiser for DADA, which provides classes for students whether they can pay or not.

Hip Hop Nutcracker is a new video on Disney Plus and it is lots of fun to watch.  It is described as a newly imagined and reinvented Nutcracker.  Basically the plot is that Maria Clara’s parents are not getting along and she takes them on various adventures to get them back together.

The first fun thing I noticed was how cleverly they use the Tchaikovsky music.  We hear a theme and soon it blends into a hip hop sound or music.  At one point Maria Clara does a playful hip hopish solo to some of the actual score and amazingly it fits very well.  The program opens with a narrator rapping and he comes back in a few other places.  The group choreography is lively, well executed and just plain fun to watch.

There are two unique cameo appearances.  The first is Tiler Peck coming to life as a Toy Doll.  It has traditional ballet steps with some added twists.  In a November 29, 2022 interview Tiler speaks about when she first saw The Nutcracker at Lincoln Center and decided she wanted to perform on that stage, to her joy in dancing various roles in The Nutcracker with the New York City Ballet and finally how she enjoyed being a part of the Hip Hop Nutcracker.  She is hoping that it will bring a different audience to The Nutcracker. https://news.yahoo.com/ballet-dancer-tiler-peck-dishes-212929808.html

The second cameo, somewhat briefer so it is easy to miss, is Mikhail Baryshnikov.  He joins the character Drosselmeyer as both come down brownstone steps.  A scene title calls him the Spirit of Snow.  Alas it is much too short.  The first time I watched it…. I did a double take saying, “Wow that looks like Baryshnikov” and of course when I looked at the cast credits, sure enough it was!

I hope you take some time to watch at least one of these Nutcrackers.  All three are different and each is special in its own way.  And maybe some of you have memories of being in The Nutcracker.  Elizabeth McPherson,(a regular reader, Avodah Dance Ensemble member for 7 years, and now Dr. McPherson, Director of Dance at Montclair State University, and author of several dance history books) shared this picture of her getting ready backstage for Atlanta’s Nutcracker when she was about ten years old. Her teacher, Janet Clough, is fixing her hair.  Thank you, Elizabeth, for sharing a Nutcracker memory with us.  Do any other readers have pictures or memories they would like to share of being in or seeing a Nutcracker performance?

Elizabeth McPherson getting ready for the Atlanta Nutcracker
with her teacher, Janet Clough, fixing her hair.

[print_link]

 

Casa Uno – Labyrinth Number 26 – Camino del Artista (Part 2)

JoAnne Tucker / / Art, Arts in Education, Costa Rica, Personal Life

Knowing I wanted a labyrinth in my garden, I Googled “Costa Rica Labyrinths” to see if I might get some help in creating one at my home in Atenas, Costa Rica.  I was surprised when the search generated a lot of information.   The very first link was totally fascinating.  “Costa Rica is home to the World’s Largest Labyrinth.” It’s called La Senda and it is located about a four- to five-hour drive from where I live. There is a website all about it and several articles online about how it was created.  (https://lasendacostarica.com/en/). If you are interested in knowing more about it, please check out the website, and do a Google search for additional articles.  Among the names associated with this labyrinth is Ronald Esquivel, who was contacted to design the labyrinth related to two energy vortexes.  Ronald is a Costa Rican architect who specializes in sacred geometry and labyrinth design.

So, of course, my next Google search was “Ronald Esquivel” and again I was rewarded with lots of information both about him and about the different labyrinths that he has designed.  Instead of the usual circular ones that I was familiar with, his designs were totally different, and each one unique. He has built labyrinths for public parks, universities, a prison, a children’s hospital, a yoga center and private homes.  There was also a lot of information on YouTube where his channel has over 69 videos, many of them examples of the different labyrinths he has created.  I was totally fascinated.  He was a keynote speaker at the 2009 Labyrinth Society Gathering in Portland, Oregon as well as a speaker for the Society again in 2020 when he was interviewed in a program called “Creating Balance in Unbalanced Times.”  I listened to the interview and read his kindle book Labyrinth Design and The Energy of its Geometry.  When I found an email address for him online, I decided to send him an email and see if he helped private homeowners like myself create labyrinths for their gardens.

I was delighted when I got a response the next day, and a few emails followed.  We set up a time for him to come and visit the garden and to make some suggestions.  After reading his book, and in particular an article that he and Jan Hurwitch wrote in 2013, I knew that he creates different designs unique to the environment he is working in. For example, at the time of this article he had created 14 labyrinths including a Wisdom Labyrinth, a Growth Labyrinth, and a 4 Element Series. For more information I suggest reading the article. http://gaiacr.org/wp-content/uploads/2016/03/Labyrinths-of-Costa-Rica.pdf

In my mind I was beginning to think about a labyrinth here as part of the Artist Retreats I was thinking of offering on my property in Costa Rica!  When Ronald arrived, I felt an immediate connection to him as we walked the garden.  He asked questions and I shared how I envisioned using the labyrinth for both myself and for guests at the Artist Retreats.  Soon we were talking about the creative process and how the labyrinth might represent different stages of the creative journey.  I also talked about how important the diagonal line was to me as a choreographer and in my paintings!   Over the next few weeks, we continued emailing and discussing the different stages of creating something, whether it is a dance, a painting or a musical composition.

Another visit followed, during which Ronald took careful measurements of the garden, and I finalized my decision that he would design the labyrinth and we would use his team to chalk it and create it! We also determined that the borders of the path would be red brick, and when the work would begin.

The next step involved Ronald submitting the design for my approval and asking if I wanted any changes.  I loved it and we had fun following the design and envisioning how it would be on the property.

Design of the Labyrinth: “Camino del Artista” by Ronald Esquivel

Ronald also showed me where each of the physical places of the creative journey we had agreed on would be located.

The stages we had determined were:

  1. First you must show up!!  – that’s the beginning point, from which the two diagonal lines go out, and where you walk to enter the labyrinth.
  2. Then one tends to go inward to see what it is one wants to create. That’s a place in a corner which is very private and somewhat hidden.
  3. Next step is gathering all the tools and research one needs to make the vision happen. That is represented by the curves and twists in the labyrinth as one moves from one side of the garden to the other.
  4. There is a point where one looks outward… and begins to share, and this is represented by a corner where one can view the mountains in the distance.
  5. And of course, there is the center which the path reaches. I view that as the first draft!
  6. The return journey is all the editing that one does to complete a project.

Ronald’s friend and co-author of the 2013 article, Jan Hurwitch,  joined him as we reviewed the draft and she brought with her 5 crystals that would be buried on the path, representing different relevant emotions.  They are:

  1. A black Onyx to repel negativity
  2. Aquamarine for courage
  3. An Orange Agate to reduce stress
  4. Crystal Quartz for healing and spirituality
  5. Rose Quartz for love and compassion, particularly starting with oneself.

The crystals will be buried once the labyrinth is completed, at the inaugural ceremony.

Coming next will be Part 3 – Building the Labyrinth!!

[print_link]

 

Improvising into 2022

JoAnne Tucker / / Arts in Education, Movement Workshops

I’m not one for making New Year’s resolutions, but somehow as I step into this new year I sense a need to have a philosophy or an approach to handle the continuing challenges of the time we are living in.  As I pondered what this approach could be, what came to mind was the important role improvisation has played in my work with the dance company and in the many workshops I have led in so many different situations. When an improvisation works it transcends the moment, connecting the participants together in a new and unique way.  Somehow each participant has let go of their individual agenda and given themselves fully to the moment and to each other.  Over the years I have experienced this in a variety of different places, and the feeling of connecting deeply was sometimes surprising and always very fulfilling.  I have observed it when the Avodah Dance Ensemble nailed an improvisation of a particular Torah portion.  Once when I was leading a group of students in a Doctor of Divinity Program it happened as we responded to a line of text in movement, and after the beautiful movement improvisation of about 10 minutes we quietly sat together, not sure what words to use to describe the experience, and just remained quiet, taking in what had happened.

So we are living at a time when it is important to let go of being fully committed to plans. We just don’t know what’s around the corner related to COVID… will there be a new variant that will close things down?  How do we interact with people, even if we have gotten the vaccines and booster?  This is all very new, and I find I am reminding myself of what I know from years of improvisation and even from the more informal creative movements I learned as a child:  having fun and committing myself to the moment and finding the way to respond.

Recently Rabbi Lisa Greene emailed me and asked me if I would speak to a student of hers who was a dancer preparing for her Bat Mitzvah.  I agreed and did, and then Lisa and I enjoyed emailing back and forth.  Lisa shared a link with me about Viola Spolin, Spolin’s son Paul Sills and Second City Improv Company.  It was a program created by the PBS station in Chicago and the description about the program is as follows:

Chicago’s greatest cultural export just might be improvised theater, which was born at Jane Addams’ Hull House during the Great Depression and carried out into the world by the likes of Bill Murray, Tina Fey, Amy Poehler and Stephen Colbert.  But while to most people improv might seem synonymous with comedy, the art form was devised by a woman named Viola Spolin who wasn’t out for laughs.

I knew Viola Spolin’s name well and even took a workshop with her in the 60’s in Chicago, probably knowing of her through the graduate work I was doing in theatre either at the University of Pittsburgh or University of Wisconsin in Madison.  And I had both her book Improvisation for the Theater and a wonderful box filled with all kinds of cards for games to use in teaching movement improvisation.  Her book came out in 1963 and is still available on Kindle or through a website devoted to her work.  I highly recommend checking out the website.

Viola Spolin was born in 1906 to Russian Jewish immigrants.  In the 1930’s, as a social worker, she began experimenting with theatre games.  To learn more about her amazing life, the number of actors and teachers she has directly influenced (along with countless others through them) and why she is called the “mother of improvisation” please check out her biography  at:  https://www.violaspolin.org/bio

Spolin died in 1994.  Her son Paul Sills continued her work during her lifetime and after and there is lots about him in the PBS YouTube link.  Her granddaughter Aretha Sills is continuing to lead workshops and has a series online.  I just boldly signed up for a workshop beginning March 3rd, meeting once a week for 2 ½ hours, for six weeks.  I am very curious to see how she will be leading it online and I definitely want to refresh myself on how an improvisational way of thinking might help to handle the challenges of 2022!

Before I close this blog I want to share a few specific reasons why improvisation can be a guide for 2022.  These come from two websites that cite Spolin’s work and express it clearly:

  1. Live in the moment, responding to what is happening
  2. “Yes and,” not “No but”! Be positive
  3. Listen
  4. Meet the needs of your partner, team or situation rather than your ego
  5. Do your best and learn from your mistakes
  6. Don’t have an agenda
  7. Don’t be afraid to fail

Here’s the link to the two websites that talk about how improvising can contribute to a more positive creative life.    https://www.nextavenue.org/mprov-way-through-life/

https://greenglobaltravel.com/how-to-be-happier-5-secrets-to-improvising-your-life/

I look forward to taking the online workshop and most certainly will write a blog about it!  SO here is to a new year navigating with flexibility and improvising as we go!

Both images are from the ViolaSpolin.org website.  Although it turned out that I didn’t need permission to use the images (as they have the website on the posters), I did check and was pleased to get a speedy positive response from Aretha Sills.

[print_link]

 

Dr. Barbara McIntyre – “An Inspiration and Mentor to Generations of Students”

JoAnne Tucker / / Arts in Education, Personal Life

I am one of those students and the above quote is from an obituary of Barbara McIntyre.   When I returned to Pittsburgh in 1962 and became a theatre major at the University of Pittsburgh following two years at Juilliard, one of the courses I took was Dr. McIntyre’s class on Creative Dramatics.  It was for both education and theatre students and gave us a good grounding in how to teach creative dramatics to children.  When I completed my undergraduate work and we stayed in Pittsburgh another year so my husband Murray could finish his Ph.D., I became Barbara’s teaching assistant as I worked towards a master’s degree in theatre.

Barbara had a wonderful way of encouraging creative potential in young children as well as in those who studied with her at the undergraduate or graduate level. While I was her teaching assistant she encouraged me to integrate creative movement into creative dramatic classes and suggested writing an article for teachers about how to use movement in creative dramatics.  It was an excellent assignment and experience for me as I researched and thought about movement and how best to express it for teachers. It gave me a fundamental understanding that served me well for the next thirty years. It did result in a publication, and the next year when we had moved to Madison, Wisconsin and I began graduate work for a Ph.D. in theatre, the University did not require me to finish my master’s since my work had been published.  I was allowed instead to enter the doctorate program directly.  I also became a teaching assistant in the theatre department, but those experiences will be for a later blog.

Barbara was born in Moose Jaw, Saskatchewan, Canada in 1916 and according to an interview by Ruth Beall Heinig, Ph.D., a former student, she wasn’t much of a student growing up.  She began to find her talents in theatre and voice especially when she went to Normal School which she attended after high school and where she was in a teacher training program. Upon graduating from the program she taught in a small rural school near Moose Jaw. That teaching experience with 11 students ranging in grades 1 to 9 instilled in her a love for children and teaching. In fact, her obituary (June 2005) mentions that “Barbara fell in love with children and with teaching did everything in her power to bring learning alive in her classroom. Early on Barbara incorporated drama into her classes and learned how powerful a force it could be in children’s learning.” (https://www.legacy.com/ca/obituaries/timescolonist/name/barbara-mcintyre-obituary?n=barbara-mcintyre&pid=14252934)

In researching for this blog there was much I learned about Barbara’s life, including her earning her M.A. at the University of Minnesota in 1950 and then moving to Pittsburgh a few years later, first with a shared job between the University of Pittsburgh and the Children’s Theatre of Pittsburgh. The Arizona State University Library, Child Drama Collection, where Barbara’s papers from 1948-1991 are housed, provided an excellent write up of her time at Pitt.

As a Professor at the University of Pittsburgh, Barbara shared a job with the Children’s Theater of Pittsburgh and the Pitt Speech Department. This enabled her to develop a teacher education program where the college students could be involved with children from the first week of classes. When the Speech Department started sending children with hearing and speech problems to her classes, she realized the therapeutic value of creative drama. Her chairman encouraged her to go back to school and get a doctorate degree in speech and hearing. She studied with Eleanor Irwin, Clinical Professor of Psychiatry in the School of Medicine, who promoted the use of creative drama in drama therapy. McIntyre received her PhD from the University of Pittsburgh in 1957. The title of her dissertation was, The Effect of a Program of Creative Activities Upon the Consonant Articulation Skills of Adolescent and Pre-Adolescent Children with Speech Disorders.  (http://azarchivesonline.org/xtf/view?docId=ead/asu/mcintyre.xml;query=;brand=default)

Besides the excellent experience of learning how to analyze and incorporate movement into creative dramatics, there were some other very important things I learned from Barbara.  First of all, she introduced me to literature on children’s theatre and creative dramatics and particularly Winifred Ward’s Stories to Dramatize. I am not sure if Caps for Sale was a part of this collection but this became one of my favorite stories that I used often in creative movement classes.  It is about a peddler who falls asleep under a tree and monkeys come down from the tree and steal all of his hats from his bag.  When he wakes up and sees what has happened he finds a clever way of tricking the monkeys to get his caps back.  Under Barbara’s guidance I learned how to use these stories to captivate a group of children and to engage them so that they could act or dance the stories.  And I learned how to ask questions following their acting/dancing so that the group could both see what worked and what might be improved upon in a positive and healthy way.

One of my responsibilities as Barbara’s teaching assistant was to observe (via a one-way mirror) children with speech and hearing problems working in creative dramatics, and to take notes about the sessions.  Both my observations with Barbara and my mother’s work with the visually handicapped encouraged me to see and sometimes work with children or adults with disabilities.

I am also very grateful for the seeds that were planted in working with Barbara of how dance and theatre can reinforce academics — and not just with young children.  Two of the projects of Avodah (the dance company I founded and directed), made good use of this.  “Let My People Go” received a number of grants that enabled us to go into the New York area public schools and present concerts and workshops with students which reinforced curriculum related to American history, slavery in the United States and figures like Harriet Tubman.  We also developed programs around the Holocaust and again received grants to bring them to students.

And of course, the roots of how I incorporated dance midrash into the Jewish educational classroom, especially for children, goes back to this time. As I reflect back on the different role models and mentors I had it is like looking at a good recipe with lots of different ingredients.  I feel so grateful that I had the opportunity to study and work with Barbara McIntyre.

I especially want to thank Dr. Eleanor Irwin and Dr. Ruth Heinig for their help in “remembering Barbara.”  Both of them stayed very close to Barbara after she left Pittsburgh.

Picture from the personal collection of Eleanor Irwin, Ph.D.  Barbara is on the left, with her sister, niece and nephew.

[print_link]