‘THE NUTCRACKER’ A ‘RITE OF PASSAGE’ FOR MOST DANCERS
Former Dayton Ballet dancers reminisce about ‘The Nutcracker.’
It’s a good bet that a ballet dancer who is hoping for a dance career has appeared in “The Nutcracker.”
Dayton Ballet artistic director Karen Russo Burke estimates the iconic holiday ballet is a traditional part of a season repertoire for 99.9 percent of ballet companies. “By the time you’re prepared to dance in a professional company you’ve gone through a lot of ballet schooling and have been training for years,” she explains. “In all that time there’s no way you wouldn’t have had the opportunity to dance in some production of ‘ The Nutcracker.’ Chances are you would have danced it nearly every year.”
Tchaikovsky’s beautiful music combined with fanciful choreography, gorgeous costumes and sparkling stage settings make this special ballet a perfect introduction to the world of dance—for both audiences and dancers. This will be the fifth year for the Dayton Ballet’s current production with choreography by Burke, sets by designer Ray Zupp, and costumes by Lowell Mathwich. The story of little Clara and her adventures in the Land of Sweets comes to the Benjamin and Marian Schuster Performing Arts Center Dec. 11-21 and will be accompanied by the full Dayton Philharmonic Orchestra, under the baton of Neal Gittleman.
A rite of passage
“The Nutcracker” is a “rite of passage” for most dancers. That includes Burke herself, who first
appeared as a mouse at the age of 6.
Like many dancers, she progressed to the coveted role of the Sugar Plum Fairy. “The last time I danced Sugar Plum with the American Repertory Ballet in Princeton, my five-year-old son presented flowers to me on stage,” Russo recalls.
Former dancers reminisce
In the early years, according to Burke, the Dayton Ballet performed selections entitled “The Nutcracker Suite.” It wasn’t until the 1990s that former artistic director Dermot Burke introduced a full story ballet. With the Dayton Ballet School marking a 90th anniversary and the Dayton Ballet Company celebrating its 80th, a lot of dancers who have Dayton’s “Nutcracker” on their resume have gone on to professional careers as dancers, choreographers and dance instructors.
■ Rachel Carmazzi Osmena, whose mother danced with the founder of the Dayton Ballet, grew up at the Dayton Ballet School and danced with the Dayton Ballet for 10 years. “As a professional you wait for the day when you get to wear the crown of the Sugarplum Fairy,” says Osmena. ” I was privileged and honored to wear that crown many years, but the one part I always enjoyed was that of Grandma and making the audience laugh.” These days Osmena is living in Columbus and teaching dance to fourth graders for a company called Momentum.
■ Jammie Walker, who danced with with Dayton Ballet from 2012-2015, now performs with Jessica Lang Dance in New York. “In my first season the ballet had a ‘history of Dayton’ spin on it which was very interesting to me,” he recalls. “I felt like I got to learn a little bit more about an otherwise new city. “His first roles included Parent in the Party Scene, Snow King, and Russian. “Party scene is always fun, very low stress dancewise,” Walker comments, adding that it is always fun to see how you can make it different in subtle ways each night. Because he always enjoyed dancing with a partner, he found the Snow Pas de Deux with the Snow Queen and King Dancing together always exciting. “And Russian is one of my favorite roles, short and exciting with a lot of turns and jumps.”
Every 10 years, Dayton Ballet does a brand new production with new choreography, new sets, new costumes, everything. “It turned out that my second year of ‘Nutcracker’ in Dayton would be this all new production. It was stressful but also extremely rewarding,” says Walker, who was cast as the Soldier Doll, Spanish and Sugar Plum Cavalier. “I vividly remember the Soldier Doll role being difficult because of the entrance and exit,” he says. ” The party scene dads would roll me onstage in a huge box painted to look like a Christmas present. Not only was it pitch black in the box but they would spin me as they brought me on! By the time I was onstage I barely knew which way was front! I remember finally finding a hole in the top of the box that I could look through to keep my bearings until the last second where I would scramble to get into my pose right before they opened the box. Needless to say, I was glad to get out of that box!”
He admits he was both excited and terrified when he was given the leading role of Sugar Plum Cavalier. “I really feel like the 2014 performances of ‘The Nutcracker’ were some of my best,” says Walker. ” I felt as though a light bulb came on and I was able to be more relaxed and confident onstage. I look back on those performances fondly. Overall my experience with Dayton Ballet was not only educational and inspiring but also filled with fun. The people involved in the organization — from the choreography to the costumes to the sets and everything in between — are passionate about what they do. Nutcracker has been a huge part of my life and I feel very lucky to have been able to experience it with the artists of Dayton Ballet.”
■ Jennifer Sydor, who now performs in New York with the Metropolitan Opera Ballet, was cast as the Dayton Ballet’s Clara in 1993 at the age of 13 and says she immediately fell in love with Tchaikovsky’s score. “I idolized the beautiful company members as they brought the story alive with magical stage presence,” she says now. “Looking back, having the opportunity to watch how professional dancers worked has been invaluable to my career. I understood at an early age the value of a strong work ethic, perseverance and storytelling through the body that was reinforced by my teachers at the time — Dermot Burke, Karen Russo Burke, Gregory Robinson, Kathryn Moriarty and Bess Saylor.”
Sydor says she still feels the same thrill of stepping on stage underneath the bright lights as I did as a young Clara. “After spending over a decade performing in New York City and Europe, I no longer feel overcome by nerves as I did as a young girl, but can purely enjoy the moments on stage,” she says. “Having the experience of performing in front of a large audience as a young dancer paved the way for my lifelong career in dance. “That career has included film, television, ballet, modern and contemporary dance, dance theater, commercial dance and immersive dance theater. Sydor has most recently completed a master of fine arts degree. “I look forward to beginning sparks of love that are so visible and palpable in young dancers, just as I felt as Clara at the Dayton Ballet.”