Feminine Touch Puts Twist On Princeton Youth Ballet's Nutcracker

PRINCETON, NJ — The Princeton Youth Ballet’s production of “The Nutcracker” is unlike most traditional performances of the holiday classic. Among the many vastly different productions based on the century-old ballet by Marius Petipa and Lev Ivanov, and the original story by E.T.A. Hoffman, most of the ballet’s choreographers have been men.

Risa Kaplowitz breaks with that tradition. She is one of the few female choreographers in ballet. Due to the disparity of male to female choreographers, there is a predictable shortage of true heroines in classical ballet.
Most story ballets present fragile and demure fairytale characters, but ballets featuring young women with more substance are hard to find. “The Nutcracker’s” principal character, Marie, upsets the norm as a “girl hero” who courageously saves the Nutcracker Prince from a villainous Mouse King, and by doing so breaks the curse of his imprisonment. To put it simply, she saves him, not the other way around.

Kaplowitz’s version of “The Nutcracker” stays true to the original story with a few wonderfully imaginative revisions. The production is vivid, enchanting and affectionate, and the young artists of Princeton Youth Ballet are accomplished beyond their years.

“PYB audiences can expect to see exceptionally skilled and passionate young dancers in our productions,” Kaplowitz said. “In choreographing The Nutcracker, I kept asking myself what I would have liked to see brought to life as a young girl. The result satisfies my yearning for mystery, magic, courage and romance, and I think our audiences will feel the same.”

Kaplowitz’s experience as a former principal dancer and as a nationally prominent dance educator with the American Ballet Theatre National Training Curriculum makes her remarkably fluent in the language of classical ballet. Her company continues to present strong, beautiful young dancers, many of whom go on to careers in the highest ranks of the professional ballet world.

The show will open the ballet’s 2017-18 season with three performances next month. Performances will be on Dec. 9, 4 p.m. and Dec. 10 at noon and 4 p.m. at the Princeton High School Performing Arts Center, 151 Moore Street.

“The Nutcracker” will feature a cast of 75 dancers, gorgeous projection backdrops created by Raymond DeVoe, and costumes designed or constructed by Beverly MacDonald, Barbara Osburn, Cathy Hazard, and Rhode Island School of Design’s apparel major, Elizabeth Shevelev.

Audiences are invited to experience this delightful holiday tale of a brave young girl’s adventures with her Nutcracker as she rescues him from the menacing Mouse King and they journey together into a Forest of Dancing Sugar Crystals and the indulgent Land of the Sweets. The show is accompanied by the familiar swells of Tchaikovsky’s iconic musical score.

Tickets are $18-$35, and are available at https://www.brownpapertickets.com/event/3090119 or by calling 1-609-222-7592. Corporate/group discounts and special pricing for Scout groups are available.

For information about Princeton Youth Ballet and the company’s 2017-2018 season, visit www.princetonyouthballet.org, check out the Princeton Youth Ballet on Facebook, @PYBallet on Instagram and @PYBallet on Twitter.

The attached image was previously provided by the Princeton Youth Ballet