STAYING TRUE TO A HOLIDAY TRADITION
Ballet Repertory Theatre presents ‘Nutcracker’ at KiMo Theatre
Katherine Giese knows “The Nutcracker” is a holiday tradition. With that in mind, Giese also knows the importance of switching up Ballet Repertory Theatre of New Mexico’s production each year.
“It’s all new choreographed pieces,” Giese says. “We have auditions in the summer and that’s when I see the cast and I have to figure out how to showcase their talents. I know I have a lot of dedicated audience members. It’s nice to provide something different to the story. The audience looks forward to the little surprises.”
Ballet Repertory Theatre of New Mexico will present “The Nutcracker” at 2 and
7 p.m. Friday, Dec. 22, and at 2 p.m. Saturday, Dec. 23, at the KiMo Theatre.
This year marks Giese’s 19th “Nutcracker” as BRT director, though she’s been involved in a “Nutcracker” production since she began dancing.
This year’s cast features around 50 dancers.
“It’s one more than I had last year,” she says. “It’s still not a huge cast and the biggest challenge is getting creative with the choreography.”
The story of “The Nutcracker” is loosely based on the E.T.A. Hoffmann fantasy story “The Nutcracker and the Mouse King,” which is about a girl who befriends a nutcracker that comes to life on Christmas Eve and wages a battle against the evil Mouse King.
Giese says this year’s production has more mid-range dancers than beginner dancers, so she’s had to make some adjustments from last year.
“The tea dance had 12 little ones with one lead dancer last year,” she says. “My tea dance is completely different.
Instead of 12 kids with fans dancing around one dancer, I have four dancers that have flying kites and they are dancing around two lead dancers. I’ve never done that at all.”
Being able to have versatility helps Giese keep the production fresh each year.
This year’s dancers also have experience dancing “The Nutcracker.”
“Coming out of the pandemic, it was rough with the dancers,” she says. “This year, we have another strong group of dancers with experience. It’s always a journey to get to performance days and it’s a magical time for many.”