An abridged Nutcracker is the highlight of the company s virtual holiday program
Molly Glentzer December 21, 2020Updated: December 22, 2020, 11:10 am
Houston Ballet s Naazir Muhammad brings some Nutcracker acrobatics to one of the dances of the company s on-demand Nutcracker Sweets performance. Photo: Lawrence Elizabeth Knox / Lawrence Elizabeth Knox
The best thing about “Nutcracker Sweets,” Houston Ballet’s on-demand virtual holiday program, turns out to be the element I least expected to enjoy: An abridged video of artistic director Stanton Welch’s “The Nutcracker.”
Archival films of big ballets have not been a satisfying replacement for live dance this year. They are typically shot from a distance, with a stationary camera or two, because that’s all the dancers’ unions used to allow.
Nothing says holiday tradition around town like making your way down to the Wortham Theater Center to see
The Nutcracker each year. Well, it’s anything but a normal year, but despite living in a post-COVID world, the Houston Ballet and Artistic Director Stanton Welch have attempted to make lemonade within the lemon-tations of the year in the form of
Nutcracker Sweets. The hour-long mixed repertory makes the necessary move to cyberspace, with a program featuring two new works from Welch, a new work spotlighting Houston Ballet II and Students of Houston Ballet Academy, and an abbreviated version of
The Nutcracker culled together from footage taken in 2018.
Instead of months of rehearsal room practice, her communications with Artistic Director Stanton Welch came via a Zoom meeting to discuss his vision of the role she would dance. Instead of dancing with other company members, she and all other dancers were filmed one at a time in the ballet s dance lab, with a camera operator, lighting professional and Welch, all in masks.
Editing magic was applied afterward to pull each dance sequence together in what will be virtual instead of a performance before a live audience. The Nutcracker became instead
Nutcracker Sweets: an hour-long mixed rep program with an abbreviated version of Welch’s choreographed