Step Right Up for a Nutcracker Like No Other

By Sylvia Whitman | Photos by Frank Atura

One of Sarasota’s newest holiday traditions was conceived at the kitchen table. In town to stage one of his works, British dancer and choreographer Matthew Hart was kibitzing with his old Royal Ballet buddies Iain Webb and Margaret Barbieri, director and assistant director of The Sarasota Ballet. “We’d been having a bite to eat and a few drinks after a long day in the studio,” says Hart, “and Iain had mentioned that he really wanted a new production of Nut for the company… We also talked about another idea of his, which was to do a ballet that could pay homage/tribute to the circus and or the Ringlings.” Hart had recently visited the Ringling Museum and grounds, and retiring to his room, he let his mind wander, “when it just clicked.”

John Ringling’s Circus Nutcracker made its world premiere in Sarasota in 2012. For anyone who grew up in a cave, The Nutcracker is a centenarian two-act ballet set to a Tchaikovsky score, a Christmas staple that has delighted (and occasionally bored) repeat audiences since commandeering the American stage in the 1960s. Hart removes the phantasmagorical story from a Russian drawing room and reimagines it in Jazz Age America, with the Kingdom of the Circus replacing the dreamy Land of Sweets. Designer Peter Docherty’s Art Deco set captures the era’s rah-rah mood and the extravaganza of a big-top show. Loose transpositions follow: the mysterious Drosselmeyer of the original becomes John Ringling, with his nephew John Ringling North in the role of Nutcracker and Ringmaster. Hart recasts the Sugar Plum Fairy and the Prince as trapeze artists Sugar and Prince.

“Most of the choreography isn’t based on the traditional production, except Sugar and Prince’s grand pas and solos,” says Hart. “I think the biggest challenge for dancers is that most of them will have been dancing The Nutcracker since they started dancing, so they come into this thinking, ‘Oh yeah, I know this.’ Then they discover just how completely different it is.” Not only does the company have to learn new choreography but also “new characters and new character interpretations.”

For Sarasota Ballet principals Kate Honea and Ricardo Graziano, who originated the roles of Sugar and Prince and reassume them this year, the playacting is the fun. Graziano, a choreographer himself, says that Hart used The Sarasota Ballet dancers’ personalities when shaping the characters. Sugar, for instance, channels Honea’s “bubbly” nature as she blows kisses to her fans.

“We know how to act like divas,” says Honea, with a laugh.

“Oh my God, we love ourselves,” says Graziano.

Graziano has adored the circus since his childhood in Brazil, where his uncle was a famous clown. His favorite part of the Circus Nutcracker? The opening of Act Two, when Prince and Sugar are hanging from a trapeze.

“I get so nervous,” says Honea.

“And I wish we were up there flipping,” says Graziano.

The original Nutcracker sold Honea on a career in ballet. Her mother took her to a performance, “and I said, ‘I have to be in it.’” She landed her first Nutcracker role at age 8 with the Miami City Ballet. By the time she was performing with the Pittsburgh Ballet, she was dancing all 30 performances of the season. She still loves the grand pas de deux and solos, challenging “stepwise and staminawise.” But the one-weekend window of the Circus Nutcracker (December 20-21), she and Graziano agree, keeps the production fresh.

So too does the circus flair, from the over-the-top costumes to the showboating performers. The battle between mice and soldiers (cave dwellers, imagine a bad dream after a big dinner) turns into combat between gangster mice and clowns. Replacing the trademark divertissements of the classic Nutcracker are circus acts, with a lion tamer, acrobats, and zebras.

“One thing I always tell people to look out for are the clowns and what they get up to during the party scene,” says Hart. “And the elephant! Yes, that’s something that will surprise the audience: The  way it comes to life and then turns into the wild cat enclosure always gets a great reaction. It think it’s also a really lovely example of my and Peter’s ideas coming together to create something special.”

The Sarasota Ballet began rehearsals for the Circus Nutcracker back in September and has auditioned scores of local kids who will make an appearance in the party scene or in other bit roles. Vets of past productions (2012, 2013, 2015, 2017) like Honea and Graziano are coaching newcomers to the company, and Hart will come to town in December to “polish the edges,” says Graziano.

“We may get too comfortable,” says Honea, “so he’ll push us. And he’ll get excited by all the new dancers.”

Born from conversation, John Ringling’s Circus Nutcracker continues as a collaborative creation celebrating Sarasota’s history.

“I think for anyone who thinks they know The Nutcracker, this entire production is going to knock them out of their socks,” says Hart. “Because it really is unlike any other Nutcracker out there.”

John Ringling’s Circus Nutcracker will be performed at Van Wezel Performing Arts Hall in Sarasota with full orchestral accompaniment on December 20-21. For more information, see sarasotaballet.org/events