CHUCK: Festival’s artistic curator Yury Yanowsky created all-new choreography for this production and Erminio Pinque of Big Nazo lab created new masks for the rat king and the nutcracker himself.
JAMES: Ermino told us that he took his inspiration for his design of the Nutcracker mask from some of the common elements you might see in Christmas nutcrackers.
ERMINIO: They all had a fierce, kind of intense quality to them because they do have that function of breaking things with their teeth. They look wired, and wide-eyed and a bit scary.
JAMES: Here’s Yury Yanowsky.
YURY: For me I feel like he has like a little bit of a French, no? Looks like a French character… could be like the pink panther, you know? He’s Inspector Clouseau, you know?
CHUCK: There is a sense of fun and humor to the look of the Nutcracker, while the Rat King is a little more grotesque.
ERMINIO: Well, what we have is a snarly looking rodent. I was very inspired by you know, the species of hairless rats, you know, naked mole rats have really, I mean, they’re beautiful and grotesque at the same time, because they’re so fleshy. So I really wanted to incorporate that sense of organic gristle. So the mouse has a real kind of furrowed brow and kind of a snarl expression. But it also isn’t hateful or monstrous, you know, it’s basically the way a rat would look like if it were about to eat something delicious maybe or gnawing its way out of a closet or something. So there’s a sense of determination, I think, but fierceness, you know, that I wanted to go for. It’s wearing a silvery crown that looks like it’s made out of rat claws. and it’s got like two big Mickey Mouse style ears but that’s that’s where the resemblance ends.
JAMES: You may have seen Erminio’s creations at parades or protests around Rhode Island: his group Big Nazo makes giant foam monsters, aliens, and other characters that are a little scary and grotesque, but they always manage to draw in audiences of all ages.
ERMINIO: What makes them endearing is the way that they behave, how their intention is exhibited through movement. So I feel the same thing happens in every production of The Nutcracker, especially in this one in which you have a fierce kind of warrior guy, who’s this wooden soldier who then through actions and heroism and its motion and its kindness you understand that it’s the good guy in this battle.
CHUCK: The battle between The Nutcracker and the Rat King comes near the end of Act One of the ballet. Act Two features popular favorites like the Waltz of the Flowers and the Dance of the Sugar Plum Fairy. But it also includes a Chinese and Spanish dance which in a traditional production are not exactly authentic.
JAMES: But this production changes that with all new choreography.
YURY: I was born in Lyon, France, but I was raised in Spain, my parents are Spanish. And I always thought the Spanish dance was like a joke. It was like ah! It’s not representing. You know, everybody thinks that Spanish dance is “Olé olé!” Flamenco. Actually the Spanish traditional folklore dance is this, is Ballet. The Russian and the French they think they invented it, but I think they stole it from the Spanish.
JAMES: Here’s Festival’s director Kathleen Breen Combes.
KATHLEEN: Our Chinese dance this year, we worked with a traditional Chinese dance consultant, Chu Ling, who teaches in our school and she’s helped Yury with traditional fan dances and the dragon.
YURY: I was like “yes finally. It’s representing.” That’s what I tried to do, that’s why we got the Chinese dancer to like, bring in tradition. So it’s not like a mockery, you know. It’s more of a representation with respect.
CHUCK: The Nutcracker is on now through December 26th at The Vets in Providence.
Festival Ballet is an underwriter of The Public’s Radio
