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It's Christmas and New Year and it's Nutcracker time: as night follows day the two are linked it seems. What on earth to do on an up to the minute dance web-site? What possible fresh angle on a ballet that the esteemed dance critic Richard Buckle, having perhaps seen one or two (read ten or twenty) productions too many, concluded “We are all one more Nutcracker nearer to death!”

I suspect we all have some sympathy with Buckle's view but personally I love The Nutcracker, not only for all the variety of dance but also as an opportunity to see some more junior dancers get their first opportunities to shine. Ding! A piece about young Sugar Plums, one from English

Belinda Hernandez

National Ballet (ENB) and one from Birmingham Royal Ballet (BRB) - the two home companies that are really concentrating on Nutcracker this year.

Taking the two companies together there are 15 Sugar Plums dancing in London this season, with a mixture of Principals, Soloists and Artists appearing in the lead. Of course the roles of Prince, Clara and Drosselmeyer are often used to test dancers as well, but we will perhaps save those interviews for another year. On the Sugar Plums front, from BRB we talked with Ambra Vallo and from ENB, Belinda Hernandez: both Soloists and, as it turns out, they have actually danced Sugars a time or two before. So they both have a good appreciation of the role but neither is what you call blasé about it. Not by any manner of means: opportunities like this are limited as both strive to improve and push for higher rungs in their respective companies.

Neither dancer comes from what you might call a long Nutcracker tradition. Belinda Hernandez, in hushed tones admits that she was 22 before she saw a ‘proper’ Nutcracker! Raised and trained in Australia, of Spanish parents - the Aussie accent comes as a surprise at first - Belinda danced in the rather odd Australian Ballet production by Graeme Murphy which is nothing much to do with Christmas spirit and where the mice are part of the Bolshevik Revolution in Russia. Probably not a sure-fire winner in London at Christmas.

Ambra Vallo

Ambra Vallo's Italian background similarly has not really prepared - forewarned is perhaps a better term! - her of the significance of Christmas Nutcrackers in the UK.

Of course Nutcracker is such an odd ballet with the Sugar Plum only coming on stage right at the very end, with perhaps 8-10 minutes of dancing all up. I can think of no other full length ballet in which the lead ballerina dances so little or comes on stage so late. Of course these are the very characteristics that make it a good piece in which to test and push younger dancers. As Ambra puts it:

“It's not very long, just a pas de deux. It's not like another role with 3 acts - it does not have any kind of build up really to it. ... It is more like technical and very regal, or noble. I really like it - they are all different!”

For Belinda, while it may be short, “It's a huge challenge” and Derek Deane's new production (in its second season this year) has made things a little extra challenging as more of the original steps have been added back in. “Coordinating all the legs while we are trying to look soft and pretty up top is not easy!” seems to sum up the task facing all those who have been taking on ballerina roles for the last century and a half.

While there is significant technical challenge in living up to the original Ivanov choreography the lack of any discernible character in the role makes it not quite such a hit those who dance it. As Ambra says:

“Everybody likes different things. I prefer a ballet where you are playing a role and where you can really show feelings and emotions. So I prefer ballets that are more lyrical and dramatic then pure classics like Nutcracker, Sleeping Beauty or Swan Lake. I prefer Romeo and Juliet, Manon and Giselle. More of a character in it”.

Not unsurprisingly Belinda too craves a character role: “That's the thing with the Nutcracker, you know you might be the ballerina of the ballet, and there may be a story, but we don't really tell a story - it's just a classical piece. ... That's my next aim - to do a full story as a Principal”. She hopes for a Juliet. Ambra is a bit further along and has danced Juliet, Cinderella, Kitri (Don Quixote) and Swanilda (Coppelia), but of course she still wants more to do - to do what Principals do.

All of this implies a view of Sugar as not such a major catch of a role which is an impression neither would wish to leave (Artistic Directors please note!), but in any event there are compensations in Nutcracker of a quite different type. Belinda Hernadez:

“My favourite is doing the matinees for the children. It's wonderful to perform matinees at Christmas time because I really notice it. In any role but especially the Sugar Plum with all

“We can hear them - the children - their little whispers, and it's not at all off-putting. I always enjoy the matinees, I really do.” Belinda Hernandez

the little girls out there. I don't know but that really does it for me. Before I've even started it gives me energy and drive.”

Ambra Vallo echoes many of the same feelings:

“We have a lot of children come at Christmas and I think people love the Nutcracker because they want to dream... You can feel the Christmas feeling coming from the audience. Sometimes they are so cute some of them (the children), making comments 'Oh, isn't she pretty!' or they start clapping when they are not supposed to - in the middle of a pas de deux. It's nice because it is so natural.”

It is great that those dancing in Nutcracker feel the audience as they dance. It's the one thing that keeps me going back too: the complete atmosphere of stage and audience all lost in a different world. Belinda Hernandez even watches the show herself from the wings to get in the mood: “I just have to be ready, in the wings and doing my little warm-up and watching the show - to get myself into it and to feel a part of it. ... it's hard to feel a part of it if you are sitting in your dressing room when the snow scene and party scene is happening.”

Of course there are fresh challenges each year. For Ambra there was little time to rehearse in what is effectively a new production for her. The company is preparing for its spring shows and the new Twyla Tharp piece in particular. For Belinda the challenge this year is to add ‘quality’ - an illusive term if ever there was one but she goes on to elaborate about knowing the steps (or feels that she should by now!) and it's all about floating above and looking like a ballerina in the way she carries herself and moves from one position to another, something that only really comes with practice.

So after all the talk what are they like as Sugars? Well sod's law being what it is, on neither occasion we went did we see them dance with the Prince they were originally scheduled to dance with!

Belinda Hernandez was scheduled to dance with Nathan Coppen, a fellow Australian and a soloist as well. But injury meant that Belinda actually danced with Boris de Leeuw, a Senior Principal in the company and a confident young fellow indeed. The company watched from the wings of course - there is always great support and interest at such times and Belinda got off to a good start. But then things started to go less well - something obvious to those who have seen a few Nutcrackers. Unknown to us at the time was the fact that Belinda's pointe shoes were rapidly disintegrating with the sole departing company from the upper. That she did so well and continued on, smiling all the time, is a great credit to her professionalism. Of course it is not really an option to stop proceedings and nip off for a quick change, but it would be easy to effectively give up and not to try and make the most of it. It's an event that she will laugh about in years to come, if not perhaps at the moment. And what's more the audience were fine and loved her.

Ambra Vallo's ‘new’ partner on the afternoon was Robert Parker, which was just fine because she had been scheduled to dance other Nutcracker performances with him anyway. More to

“I think we are like very similar energy wise” Ambra Vallo on dancing with Robert Parker

the point she really quite likes him as a partner! “I think we are like very similar energy wise” says much because it is one of Parker's main characteristics and a point that came up more than once or twice in our recent interview with him. Ambra was the first to dance Juliet with him (another last minute cast change had brought them unexpectedly together) and; “We are like very passionate and it really did work... I think we feel very comfortable dancing together as well. That is a help when you find a partner that really suits you and you feel like you can trust them. It gives something special to the performance when you have a chemistry of two people.”

Ambra's shoes held together and she confidently worked her way through the pas de deux and solo, beaming away at the audience and her partner in the time-honoured tradition. Yes it can get a little better, but it looked fine, there were no hiccups and it flowed smoothly. And Parker partnered wonderfully, both physically and emotionally.

When it comes down to it, there are no magic revelations to report on dancing Sugar Plum, or the Nutcracker itself. It's a classical test of any ballerina - something that needs to be mastered - but it's very much part of the wider ballet that people love for its quick pace, constant change and lack of complication. Seeing less senior dancers is great fun and if it goes well of course one feels elated too, but even if there are some hiccups it's not the end of the world for anyone: it's part of the traditional ballerina ‘making and moulding’ process and also helps us all learn who excels in what type of role and ballet.

But it's perhaps an entire company's approach to Nutcracker that matters most and luckily for us all the productions in London this year come from companies who very much love and respect Nutcracker and all those who come to see it.



At the time of writing there are still over 25 Nutcracker performances to be seen in London and both Ambra Vallo and Belinda Hernandez are scheduled to dance again before the respective BRB and ENB seasons close on the 9th January 1999. Catch them, and others, while you can. Links are at the top of the page.