By STU CLAMPITT
news@readthereporter.com
Next month the Ballet Theatre of Carmel Academy will present a version of The Nutcracker that harkens back to the original fairy tale in a way most productions do not. Artistic Director Jane Hachiya-Weiner spoke to The Reporter about that choice and the rich local history of ballet performances audience will see on stage Dec. 15 to 17 at the STAR Bank Performing Arts Center, 1000 Mulberry St., Zionsville.
Hachiya-Weiner told The Reporter that she and her husband, Frank, are both retired ballet dancers with over 20 years of experience each and have been in hundreds of performances of The Nutcracker.
Hachiya-Weiner
“We had the great good fortune to inherit some backdrops and some costumes from a dear friend of ours who was actually the founding artistic director of Indianapolis Ballet Theatre and also the Lexington Ballet, Karl Kauffman,” Hachiya-Weiner said. “We own a treasure trove of vintage and painted backdrops. And we love to showcase those.”
Thanks to Kauffman’s generosity, this history of this presentation of The Nutcracker runs deep.
“The beginning of our journey into The Nutcracker was to showcase some of our vintage backdrops and we also have some costumes from him and a lady named Natalie Lowder,” Hachiya-Weiner said. “And that’s kind of the humble beginnings of our Nutcracker. We had all the ingredients. We had vintage costumes, we had vintage backdrops. We knew how to set a Nutcracker and we had students. So, that’s how it all began.”
Ballet Theatre of Carmel Academy calls their handmade vintage backdrops the Karl Kauffman collection to honor the gift and life of Kauffman himself, who also founded the Lexington Ballet Company.
Another piece of history in this show is the choice to go back to the original E.T.A. Hoffman story. So instead of being a little girl’s dream that she wakes from at the end of the show, this will be a fantasy told as if it were real.
“With The Nutcracker, there is a curse by a mouse queen upon a kingdom, and the princess Pearlipat is enchanted and made into an ugly Nutcracker doll,” Hachiya-Weiner said. “The only way to break the spell is to walk back seven times and do something with a walnut. It’s very complicated, but the base story is there is a savior prince who takes on the curse for the princess. So we kind of went back to the original story, which is, you know, it’s a recurring theme in fairy tales. What we did with our story, and I think it hails back to what my first director at Indianapolis Ballet did and George Verdak did, was at the end, Clara doesn’t wake up in her bed from a dream. It closes when she’s back on the sled, the magical sled, waving goodbye to all the characters of the land of the sleep.”
For Hachiya-Weiner, this show is not just a traditional piece of holiday entertainment, but also a mission to pass the art along something to the next generation.
“Our goal is to pass on the legacy from all of the wonderful mentors that we as teachers had when we were younger dancers,” Hachiya-Weiner said. “The only way the art form goes forward is from person to person and it’s passing on a legacy. We take that job pretty seriously.”
Shows are scheduled for 7:30 p.m. on Friday and Saturday. 2 p.m. matinees are available on Saturday and Sunday. All performances will be held at the STAR Bank Performing Arts Center, 1000 Mulberry St., Zionsville.
You can buy tickets for the live show, for a recorded on-demand video, or order a video version on USB online at BalletTheatreOfCarmel.org/nutcracker.
This show is made possible through the sponsorship of Excell for Life Family Care and Pediatrics, Molly and the Magic Suitcase, Kinney Dancewear, the Goddard School of Carmel West, Sunshine Pediatrics, and the Hagia Sophia Classical Academy.