This is the 34th year that the Boca Ballet Theatre presented the classical production of “The Nutcracker” for the holiday season. This spectacular occasion encompasses refreshing imagination and sound, pantomiming magic under the artistic vision of executive director and co-artistic director Dan Guin.
Founded in 1990, the Boca Ballet Theatre’s initial performance of “The Nutcracker” was presented in 1992, while its current version has been ongoing every holiday season since 1997. This year’s principal dancers from the New York City Ballet Company who join the performance are Emma Von Enck as Clara and Anthony Huxley as her Nutcracker Prince. This classical tradition has been the cornerstone of all holiday productions lasting centuries.
The Classical Story of “The Nutcracker”
The story of “The Nutcracker” is based on E.T.A. Hoffman’s 1816 fairy tale, “The Nutcracker and the Mouse King.” It was later adapted by Alexandre Dumas in 1844 and, by December 1892, was composed by the renowned Pyotr Ilyich Tchaikovsky; it was first performed at the Imperial Mariinsky Theatre in Saint Petersburg, Russia.
The ballet tells the story of Clara, who receives a nutcracker toy from her godfather, Drosselmeyer, on Christmas Eve. The toy breaks and transforms into a prince, who takes Clara on her magical journey in a battle against the Mouse King. The second part of the story is into the Land of Sweets, where its whimsical realm greets her and her prince through the Sugar Plum Fairy and her fairy court. Celebrating their victorious battle leads to a series of dances representing all the candy treats from around the world. According to the Boca Ballet Theatre, these cultural themes have been updated based on the latest trends, and predominantly since last year, by loosening up the choreography to blend in more with the contemporary times within the dance world.
The Trepak, a traditional Ukrainian dance that is often included as one of the Divertissements in Act II of “The Nutcracker,” remains one of the favorite parts among some of the Boca Ballet Theatre’s dancers. Its highly energetic, acrobatic leaps in the presence of spirited music are about as adaptable to the colors of Clara’s dream as it is in prevailing the complementary sound of Tchaikovsky’s theme.
Some versions of “The Nutcracker” differ significantly across choreography, casting, and culture, such as the English version, which remains vast among various parallels, in versions of the ballet performed across the U.S.
The first complete performance in this country was by the San Francisco Ballet on Christmas Eve in 1944. However, Tchaikovsky’s music was already highly familiar to Americans by the international popularity of his “Nutcracker Suite.” The ballet truly took wind in the U.S. in the 1950s by Russian-American choreographer George Balanchine, whose version premiered with the New York City Ballet in 1954. Since foundationalized in Europe and then into the U.S., “The Nutcracker” in America has been the gateway to ballet for aspiring dancers and remains the staple in performance classics.
What It Takes
The Boca Ballet Theatre’s “The Nutcracker” cast is made of 100 dancers, with eight to 10 professionals from all over the country, and sometimes from around the world. The theatre receives audition videos from the National Ballet of Canada, Los Angeles, New York, and the San Francisco Ballet Company, to name a few, and mostly for the male parts, as male professionals are usually lacking in these areas of the ballet community. This year’s guests, along with the principal dancers, are Samuel Huberty from the AUER Academy; Nathaniel Otto, a returning dancer dancing the Spanish Divertissement; Kayke Carvalho and Vince Pelegrin from the ABT Studio Company; and Jhostin Jimenez from the United Ballet Theatre.
Meanwhile, all students must audition for every show. Their season runs from mid-August to May, starting work promptly around the end of August and no later than Labor Day every year for the “Nutcracker” production.
With five staffers at the Boca Ballet Theatre, the production is truly a family affair. Whether it is the fathers behind the set putting things together, or the volunteers handling the costumes and makeup, it takes a community to make Clara’s dream come alive.
Handmade costumes and painted scenes are all stored in the back rooms of the Boca Ballet Theatre. It is like a magnificent library of past and present, organized by category per set, and of each unique production.
Levels
The youngest performers in the Boca Ballet Theatre’s “Nutcracker” are aged 6 to 7 from Level 1. Level 7 consists of skilled 13- and 14-year-olds, and Level 8 performers are the most experienced dancers, ages 16 and 17, who dedicate their time practicing, and up to five days a week during the school year. It takes rigorous dedication, valor, and love to ignite such a powerful production.
The theatre holds kids camps in June, while there is a six-week summer extensive for the serious, aspiring dancers, with the objective of networking for opportunities in the professional world of ballet.
“Coppélia”
The Boca Ballet Theatre holds three shows every year, and “The Nutcracker” is their staple performance. Following that is a production held in the spring, and then one in the summer, which is their repertoire show. “Summer Breezes” is this year’s repertoire, and the spring production is “Coppélia.”
The Boca Ballet Theatre will bring its spring performance of “Coppélia” on April 5–6, 2025, to the Countess de Hoernle Theatre at Spanish River. “Coppélia” is a French-originated comedic ballet about a life-like doll named Coppélia; its dollmaker, Dr. Coppélius; and the much-dismayed Swanilda, whose fiancé, Franz, is infatuated by the doll, unknowing that it is not real. Swanilda instead disguises herself as Coppélia, leading to many humorous and heartwarming events.
The Boca Ballet Theatre has performed many traditional classics over the years, including the romantic era’s “Giselle,” well worth mentioning. While “The Nutcracker” poses its original onset of romantic fantasy, the threshold is held within the dancers’ dreams similar to one of Clara’s—the imagination—an exciting context of spirit from across all cultural landscapes.