It is danced to Peter Ilyich Tchaikovsky’s famous melody, but it is not your traditional Christmas Nutcracker: the Joburg Ballet has set it in the Kalahari Desert among ancient Bushmen paintings.
The winter theme has been replaced with sun, sand and baobab trees.
The role of the Sugar Plum Fairy is instead played by a sangoma or traditional healer, and the famous Russian Dance is performed in overalls and gumboots.
The Nutcracker Reimagined comes with the original music and story line of France’s famous ballet dancer and choreographer Marius Petipa — during Christmas night.
And a little girl named Clara experiences a magical adventure.
However, with no snowflakes or tutus, Clara is led by a sangoma through the Kalahari Desert, where the cave paintings come to life. And a baobab is all there is for a Christmas tree.
Christmas in the southern hemisphere comes around midsummer so “trying to pretend that it’s winter outside, is a little bit ridiculous,” Joburg Ballet CEO Dirk Badenhorst said.
“So the idea was to create a South African Nutcracker that would tell the normal story of The Nutcracker, but in a South African setting and in summer,” he added.
The Nutcracker Reimagined was first created in 2008 by the Joburg Ballet’s forerunner.
It is on show again this year — from Saturday through Sept. 27.
“This one is very, very different,” said dancer Keke Chele, who plays the butler.
“Like a traditional Christmas party when that uncle that you haven’t seen in a long time comes to visit, those are the kind of characters that we get to explore and it’s a lot of fun,” he said.
It is set in a magical world of South Africa’s sangomas, baobab trees, the gumboot dance — an invention of black miners — and would not be complete without koeksisters, a traditional local sweet treat.
The choreography is based on classic and contemporary inspiration and is sometimes strikingly pictorial.
However, this year’s version of the ballet adds circus performances, with some characters traveling to a magical world suspended from ropes.
Performers find some of those aerial tricks a bit demanding.
“The most challenging for me is probably the new circus stuff that we’re doing, it’s quite difficult,” says Angela Revie, who plays Clara.
Kitty Phetla, a soloist at the Joburg Ballet, who plays the role of the Sugar Plum Fairy — which in this case is a sangoma — finds the latest version of the dance “more dangerous.”
“It’s more sculptured, rather than being classical, it’s exciting, it’s quick,” she said.
Choreographer Adele Blank admits that adaptation did not initially flow smoothly because many of the dancers are not from South Africa and have already played in the classical Nutcracker.
“So they look at us as if we have lost the plot,” Blank said.
For several years, the Joburg Ballet — previously known as Mzansi Productions and the South African Ballet Theatre — has tried to rebrand itself and reach out beyond its predominantly white audience.
“We are trying to sustain the existing audience, but grow a very new South African audience, particularly a young and black and exciting audience,” Badenhorst said.
This performance “is one of the ways we are trying to achieve that,” he added.
GLORY FACADE: Residents are fighting the church’s plan to build a large flight of steps and a square that would entail destroying up to two blocks of homes Barcelona’s eternally unfinished Basilica de la Sagrada Familia has grown to become the world’s tallest church, but a conflict with residents threatens to delay the finish date for the monument designed more than 140 years ago. Swathed in scaffolding on a platform 54m above the ground, an enormous stone slab is being prepared to complete the cross of the central Jesus Christ tower. A huge yellow crane is to bring it up to the summit, which will stand at 172.5m and has snatched the record as the world’s tallest church from Germany’s Ulm Minster. The basilica’s peak will deliberately fall short of the
FRAYED: Strains between the US-European ties have ruptured allies’ trust in Washington, but with time, that could be rebuilt, the Michigan governor said China is providing crucial support for Russia’s aggression in Ukraine and could end the war with a phone call, US Ambassador to NATO Matthew Whitaker said. “China could call [Russian President] Vladimir Putin and end this war tomorrow and cut off his dual-purpose technologies that they’re selling,” Whitaker said during a Friday panel at the Munich Security Conference. “China could stop buying Russian oil and gas.” “You know, this war is being completely enabled by China,” the US envoy added. Beijing and Moscow have forged an even tighter partnership since the start of the war, and Russia relies on China for critical parts
Two sitting Philippine senators have been identified as “coperpetrators” in former Philippine president Rodrigo Duterte’s crimes against humanity trial at the International Criminal Court (ICC), documents released by prosecutors showed. Philippine senators Ronald Dela Rosa and Christopher Go are among eight current and former officials named in a document dated Feb. 13 and posted to the court’s Web site. ICC prosecutors have charged Duterte with three counts of crimes against humanity, alleging his involvement in at least 76 murders as part of his “war on drugs.” “Duterte and his coperpetrators shared a common plan or agreement to ‘neutralize’ alleged criminals in the Philippines
In a softly lit Shanghai bar, graduate student Helen Zhao stretched out both wrists to have her pulse taken — the first step to ordering the house special, a bespoke “health” cocktail based on traditional Chinese medicine (TCM). “TCM bars” have popped up in several cities across China, epitomizing what the country’s stressed-out, time-poor youth refer to as “punk wellness,” or “wrecking yourself while saving yourself.” At Shanghai’s Niang Qing, a TCM doctor in a white coat diagnoses customers’ physical conditions based on the pulse readings, before a mixologist crafts custom drinks incorporating the herbs and roots prescribed for their ailments.
RSS