Dance: “The Hard Nut” by Mark Morris Dance Company at BAM
In 1990, choreographer Mark Morris turned the dance world on its head when he premiered “The Hard Nut,” an alternative approach to “The Nutcracker Suite,” created 100 years earlier by Tchaikovsky.
While a 33-year-old dance piece may not really be described as avant-garde anymore, it was indeed so for yours truly, who over the years inexplicably missed it. Better later than never, I hasten to add, and I’m glad I caught up last night at Brooklyn Academy of Music.
The performance opens at a holiday party, and the setting has been changed from late 19th century Germany to mid-20th century America. The dancers are attired in A-line dresses, leather pants and gold chains, all of which would not be out of place in an episode of TV’s “Happy Days.” Okay, you think, this means that the ballet is going to be a goof and should not regarded as anything serious.
Well…not so fast, because Mark Morris Dance Company (MMDG) is digging a little deeper. “Hard Nut” tackles the secondary story, introduced in ETA Hoffmann’s story “The Nutcracker and the Mouse King” and often skipped over in traditional productions. It explains how Drosselmeyer's nephew was turned into the Nutcracker. You see, he was the only one able to crack a hard nut with his teeth and reverse a spell cast years earlier on a baby princess.
The choreography was worlds away from goofy and the imaginative costumes designed by the late Martin Pakledinaz may have been the real stars of the show. This was most evident in the Act II dream sequence featuring troupes of dancers from different countries. In case you can’t figure out who comes from where, there’s a large wall map that spotlights each group’s origin (ie Arabia, Spain, Russia etc.) as they perform.
Domingo Estrada and Mica Bernas play the handsome young nutcracker and Marie (fka Clara). They may not be as stellar as Baryshnikov and Gelsey Kirkland whom I saw nearly 50 years ago at ABT, but that was then and this is now.
Live singers—drawn from various Brooklyn youth choruses—accompanied the tutu-clad dancers, both male and female, as they cavorted about the stage in a snowstorm. Thank you for that, set designer Adrienne Lobe
l! Conducting the Nutcracker score was Colin Fowler.
Witty, campy but ever professional, “The Hard Nut” will never get old even at 33. And speaking of age, never underestimate the genius of Mark Morris, still alive and kicking and taking curtain calls at age 68.
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