The Nutcracker opened last weekend to rave reviews once again this year. The Globe and Mail says “Santo Loquasto’s gorgeous set and costumes have become more treasured with each passing year.” The Toronto Star says “the magic – forever recoverable through Tchaikovsky’s enchanting score – persists.” The Toronto Sun insists this classic “has lost not one single magical snowflake of its charm.”
As is the tradition with Nutcrackers worldwide, the National Ballet’s performance includes local celebrities in the walk-on role of the Cannon Dolls. MTV Canada hosts Dan Levy and Jessi Cruickshank (of The Hills Aftershow) took part in the opening performance on December 6.
Also making debuts with the National Ballet in The Nutcracker this season are Colin McAllister and Justin Ryan of HGTV’s Home Heist and Toronto FC Captain Jim Brennan and Striker Danny Dichio.
[Photos: Dan Levy and Jessi Cruickshank with Joseph Welbes and Stella Leowinata. Photos courtesy of Torontowide.com]
[Nikki Holck is an Apprentice with The National Ballet of Canada]
YOU dance - Youth Outreach Understanding dance - is a joint initiative by the National Ballet and Canada’s National Ballet School to expose young children to dance. Bus loads of children from the GTA have filled the Betty Oliphant Theatre for interactive performances lead by Laurel Toto and Anuschka Roes from NBS. Most of the kids had never before been to a dance performance. The YOU dance performances are a wonderful gateway into the dance community; they permit us to inspire physicality, creativity and imagination. I am filled with joy and warmth when the kids walk out of the theatre smiling, twirling and skipping down the street.
Last Tuesday, YOU dance put on a special performance for the patients at Toronto’s Hospital for Sick Children. I danced with my fellow Apprentices in a performance that will be forever engraved in my mind. The performance included Puss in Boots and White Pussycat pas de deux from The Sleeping Beauty and a Russian character dance to music from The Nutcracker. As we twirled, jumped and moved on our makeshift stage, so did a young girl in the audience. She had had surgery just four days before and this was the first time she was moving about. Arms above her head, she looked like a ballerina in a jewelry box. I have never before encountered such eager, excited and beautiful audience members.
The show at SickKids was definitely the most gratifying of the YOU dance performances. It was great to be able to share our art with those who might otherwise not be able to see it. Dance is not only joyous, creative and imaginative, it is also healing during difficult times.
[Photos: Top, cover page of Toronto Sun, Wednesday, November 26, 2008. Above, Nikki Holck in a YOU dance performance. Photo by Bruce Zinger]
