For Christmas 2024, The Weekly interviewed members of The Australian Ballet about the festive magic of The Nutcracker. Read on for their stories.
Words by Jane Albert. Photography by Sam Bisso. Styling by Mattie Cronan. Shot on location at The Regent Theatre, Melbourne.
Dreaming of The Nutcracker
For Laura Day, The Nutcracker ballet is Christmas. Whether she’s in the supermarket and hears a snippet of Tchaikovsky’s magical score or is watching a performance of young Clara and her beloved nutcracker doll-turned-prince, she is instantly transported to a warming log fire, presents under the tree, family gatherings and the magic of a white Christmas.
The Nutcracker holds a special place in the heart of this former dancer with Birmingham Royal Ballet. Since she saw her first production, at London’s Royal Opera House when she was 14, dancing the lead role of Clara was something she always dreamt about.
“I loved her character, the journey she goes through, dancing the snow pas de deux. It’s such a beautiful role to dance and was always a big aspiration for me,” she says.
Her dream came true sooner than expected, and was her first lead role in what was only her second year with the company in 2014.
“It was so special. Clara is on stage the whole time, apart from the Sugar Plum Fairy dance, and it’s a very intimate production so the audience feels they’re going on the journey with Clara too.”
What is The Nutcracker about?
Today, Laura is on the other side of the stage, since moving from Britain to Australia and joining The Australian Ballet as Corps de Ballet Repetiteur in early 2023. When we speak, she is about to begin day one of rehearsals with the junior ballerinas for the company’s upcoming production of Sir Peter Wright’s The Nutcracker.
The production became part of The Australian Ballet’s repertoire in 2007 and is a truly exquisite night in the theatre. In Peter Wright’s interpretation 15-year-old Clara, a ballet student, is celebrating Christmas Eve with her family when her uncle, the mysterious magician Drosselmeyer, arrives and gives her a nutcracker doll as a gift.
When the guests depart, Clara steals down to play with her doll and suddenly finds herself immersed in a fantasy world: Her living room transforms into a snowy, wintery wonderland and her nutcracker becomes a handsome prince. They begin a magical journey through the lands of snow and sweets and are treated to a performance by the Sugar Plum Fairy before the curtain falls and Clara wakes under the Christmas tree, wondering if it was all a dream.
The ballet’s history
Interestingly, the ballet was not well received when it first opened in St. Petersburg in 1892. Part of a double bill performed alongside Iolanta, The Nutcracker was choreographed by Marius Petipa to a new score by Tchaikovsky. Based on the short story The Nutcracker and the Mouse King by E.T.A. Hoffmann, a dark fairytale of evil spells and a seven-headed Mouse King, the storyline was softened when Petipa added the Sugar Plum Fairy and her Kingdom of Sweets. Few were impressed, with one critic describing it as “mere spectacle”.
It wasn’t until the 1940s that The Nutcracker gained popularity, regularly performed by companies in North America, while Disney’s 1940 animated film Fantasia ensured Tchaikovsky’s score would forever be enshrined in pop culture.
Wright’s production was choreographed in 1990 for Birmingham Royal Ballet in collaboration with leading British set and costume designer John Macfarlane. Together they have created a production of old-style theatre magic that is perhaps more impressive for not involving digital trickery, from the growing Christmas tree to the large flying goose who transports Clara and her prince from land to land.
From rural Australia to The Nutcracker stage
Australian Ballet Principal Artist Sharni Spencer will be one of the lucky few dancers performing the coveted role of the Sugar Plum Fairy. Growing up in rural NSW, she had The Nutcracker video on high rotation, given ballet companies didn’t often tour to Tamworth.
It was the role of the Sugar Plum Fairy she became desperate to dance once she joined The Australian Ballet in 2008.
“The Nutcracker is a ballet you grow up with. When you join the company and when you’re younger, you’re performing the snowflakes and the flowers. Then, as you progress, you’re looking up to the Sugar Plum Fairy. That’s the pinnacle, it’s a real ballerina role.”
Sharni got her break in 2019 when she was understudy for the role, before being told she’d be going on.
“It was my first time on the main stage performing a lead role. I danced with Kevin Jackson; it was really special. I was a soloist and after that performance I was promoted to senior artist.”
A Christmas tradition
Sharni says that taking the family to The Nutcracker at Christmastime is a lovely tradition that Australians have adopted. She believes Tchaikovsky’s score, coupled with the magic of the Wright-Macfarlane production, is responsible for its popularity.
“Tchaikovsky has somehow woven Christmas into the music,” she says. “And The Australian Ballet production is so beautiful – a Christmas tree that grows, the pyrotechnics, the costumes – it’s a real highlight.”
Laura admits that adjusting to a hot Christmas that’s typically spent at the beach has taken some getting used to.
“It’s a very weird feeling because Christmas for me is when it’s freezing outside and you’re wrapped up in front of a log fire. But there are certain things everyone has in common around that time – getting the family together, preparing the food, presents – and those commonalities are the same if it’s 35 degrees or minus two,” she says.
“The Nutcracker gives you that picture of the quintessential European Christmas as an idea, but wherever you are, you can relate to it because of what it means. Christmas gives us an excuse for our inner child to come out, the imagination and enjoyment of Christmas, and Nutcracker takes you back and allows you to feel that again no matter how old you are.”
This article originally appeared in the Christmas 2024 issue of The Australian Women’s Weekly. Subscribe so you never miss an issue.
