Ah, “The Nutcracker.” Besides Handel’s Messiah, no work is more reliably found in the holiday arts calendar than Pyotr Ilyich Tchaikovsky’s 1892 ballet. From professional ballerinas to toddlers in tutus, dancers of all ages and levels take on “The Nutcracker” this time of year.
The Joffrey Ballet’s production, opening Dec. 5 and running through Dec. 28, is the primo ballerino of local Nutcrackers. The company’s preferred production since its 2016 premiere, choreographer Christopher Wheeldon’s “Nutcracker” transports the young protagonist — sometimes Clara, sometimes Marie — to a fantastical evening at the 1893 World’s Fair.
As Wheeldon proves, “The Nutcracker” is ripe for adaptation — and that includes other art forms and mediums. I nearly spat out my coffee a few years ago when my inbox pinged with a promo for “The Buttcracker,” a burlesque Nutcracker whose Clara suffers a bad trip at a “boring AF” holiday party (it didn’t return to local stages this year). As an amateur violinist, I’m playing the complete ballet score with the Lakeview Orchestra the week of Christmas. Even on its own, Tchaikovsky’s score enchants.
Needless to say, Chicago has a Nutcracker for everyone. I spoke to the teams behind three productions that put unique spins on the classic.
Duke It Out! Nutcracker
In 1960, Duke Ellington and his longtime collaborator Billy Strayhorn released their own swingin’ take on Tchaikovsky’s classic. The Ellington/Strayhorn suite is still performed in all sorts of configurations, from its original big band to symphony orchestra. You can even hear the Chicago Sinfonietta play the latter in concert Dec. 19 and 20.
On Dec. 6, Dance Chicago and the Music Institute of Chicago present a dance version of the Ellington/Strayhorn “Nutcracker” arranged for brass quintet, thanks to the handiwork of Chicago-area composer Jim Stephenson. Excerpts from the original ballet score, arranged for woodwind quintet, trade off with these jazzed-up versions — a true “slug fest,” per Nichols Hall operations director Kevin Harrison.
Harrison, who knows this show inside and out, especially loves the Ellington/Strayhorn’s “tongue-in-cheek titles.” Its take on the “Dance of the Sugar Plum Fairy” becomes, for example, “Sugar Rum Cherry.” Meanwhile, the “Dance of the Mirlitons” becomes the very evocative “Toot Toot Tootie Toot.”
“You have these two juxtaposed styles, and that reflects itself in both the music and the dances that are going on. You have everything from traditional ballet to tap, jazz and even some cabaret,” Harrison said.
Oboist and Music Institute faculty member Erica Anderson is also a Duke It Out! vet, playing the show since its very first outing in 2009. She’s played the real deal as a member of the Chicago Philharmonic, which was formerly the resident orchestra of the Joffrey Ballet.
In her view, this unconventional “Nutcracker” stands up to age just as well as the original.
“Every performance is always my favorite performance,” Anderson gushes. “I’m not worried about the notes anymore, so I can look out at the audience… People just love this show, and I do too.”
“Duke It Out! Nutcracker” featuring Dance Chicago, Quintet Attacca, and the Braeburn Brass, at Nichols Concert Hall, 1490 Chicago Ave. in Evanston. Two shows on Dec. 6, 10 a.m. and 1 p.m. $20 general admission.
Hyde Park School of Dance
As long as there’s been a Hyde Park School of Dance, there’s been a Hyde Park School of Dance “Nutcracker.” Then called the Hyde Park School of Ballet, the months-old company featured excerpts from “The Nutcracker” at a holiday reception in 1993. The tradition has only grown since, moving to its current digs at the University of Chicago’s Mandel Hall in 2002.
These days, the Hyde Park “Nutcracker” represents the school’s full dance offerings — not just ballet but hip-hop, jazz, acro dance, tap, musical theater and contemporary. The procession of sweets in Act II — representing nations of the world — even features West African and Chinese classical dance, accompanied by traditional music for both.
Amber Echols is the company’s interim artistic director and one of “The Nutcracker’s” many choreographers, after dancing the part of the Snow Queen when she herself was just 14. Over the years, Echols says the show has gotten longer, bigger — more than 175 youth dancers auditioned this year — and more stylistically diverse.
“We’re making sure that all of our dancers feel included,” she said. “We’ve noticed that, for some people, ballet is just not [their] thing. We always wanted to figure out how to honor that.”
One of the production’s signature scenes is a modern spin on the Act I battle between the gingerbread soldiers and mice. That scene is reimagined as a showdown between breakdancing soldiers and hip-hop dancing mice.
Echols says the two groups have been rehearsing separately so far. They’ll come together just before the performances from Dec. 12 to 14.
“They get a little competitive,” she admitted. “They’re like, ‘You can’t see our stuff; you have to wait!’”
“The Nutcracker” at Mandel Hall, 1131 E. 57th St. Four shows, starting Friday, December 12 at 7 p.m., Saturday, December 13 at 1 and 6 p.m. (both with a young dancer pre-show), and Sunday, December 14 at 2 p.m. General admission $38.10 for adults, $25.10 for seniors 65 and up, $18.10 for students, and $8.10 for children under 5. Children able to sit in a guardian’s lap get in free.
Nutcracker on Ice
The longest-running “Nutcracker” on our list takes over Evanston’s Robert Crown Community Center every December. Be sure to bundle up, though: this “Nutcracker” is on ice.
To date, around 100,000 people have seen Robert Crown’s “Nutcracker on Ice,” which celebrates its 50th anniversary Dec. 12–14. The production has gotten more and more spectacular over the years: The lavish set pieces, valued at around $200,000, were a gift from Oprah, thanks to a connection with “The Oprah Winfrey Show’s” art director.
Putting “The Nutcracker” on ice “brings a third dimension” to the ballet, said show director Chris Hyland.
“It’s more dynamic because of the speed and the glide,” he said. “You can’t help but feel that when they’re flying by.”
Like Echols at the Hyde Park School of Dance, Hyland is a Robert Crown lifer. A Homewood native, he got his start at the rink, though scheduling conflicts kept him from participating in “Nutcracker on Ice” himself as a teen. “I was competing, and my competitions fell right on the same dates as the ‘Nutcracker,’” he said, still with a twinge of disappointment.
That remains a going concern for the talent in this “Nutcracker.” Hyland estimates that about 100 Robert Crown skaters over the years have made U.S. sectional or national teams, including this year’s principals. Playing the title role is Lorenzo Elano, 18, a former Robert Crown skater who cinched the U.S. junior champion title earlier this year. Alina Bonillo, also 18, is one of the production’s Claras; when she’s not skating for Team USA, she trains at Robert Crown, winning last year’s Midwest senior sectionals.
What also makes this “Nutcracker” special is the age range of its 250-person cast. The production features skaters as young as pre-K, from what Robert Crown calls its “snow plow” program, up to adult learners, who get their own ice-crystal number after the fight scene. The oldest skaters in that program are in their 70s and 80s.
To mark the “Nutcracker on Ice” golden anniversary, the Saturday evening show will kick off with an alumni-only number. It will even include some skaters who were in that very first production in 1974.
“Nutcracker on Ice 50th Anniversary” at the Robert Crown Community Center, 1801 Main St. in Evanston. Four shows, starting Friday, December 12 at 7 p.m.,
Saturday, December 13 at 2 and 7 p.m., and Sunday, December 14 at 2 p.m. $12 general admission; infants get in free.