BEHIND THE HOLIDAY MAGIC of Goh Ballet’s The Nutcracker is an impressive collection of handcrafted props and glittery costumes. During a recent preview of the academy’s annual winter production at its historic Main Street headquarters, many of those items were on display, ranging from a human-height knife and fork to a sparkly white “Waltz of the Snowflakes” dress to a furry Mouse King headpiece with a red-feathered crown and electrical-wire whiskers.
That last costume piece was constructed for Goh Ballet’s very first edition of The Nutcracker in 2009—a sign of both the care the organization puts into the production, and the way it has come to honour its legacy. This year marks the production’s milestone 15th edition, and two principal dancers from Montreal’s Les Grands Ballets Canadiens—Maude Sabourin and Felixovich Morante—will tour to Vancouver to perform the lead roles of Clara and the Cavalier Prince, respectively.
Chan Hon Goh, artistic director of Goh Ballet and executive producer of The Nutcracker, tells Stir that for her academy’s young dancers, training and performing alongside accomplished artists like Sabourin and Morante plays a pivotal role in cementing their career goals. Adding to that inspiration is the fact that many of the costumes worn in The Nutcracker have been preserved from the original production, and still bear the name labels of the artists who wore them over the years.
“For example, you might be wearing Yoshiko [Kamikusa]’s tutu,” Goh explains. “Now she’s a principal dancer with the Indianapolis Ballet, but she was a Snowflake in the first show of The Nutcracker, So it’s sentimental things like that, that are like, ‘Wow!’. I think that really adds to the excitement.”
The studio was abuzz with excited energy during the preview as dancers performed excerpts of the choreography by Emmy Award–winning ballet artist Anna-Marie Holmes. It gave a sense of both the energy and logistical demands of the production, which lands at the Queen Elizabeth Theatre from December 18 to 21.
Little lambs in fleecey white jumpsuits with pink bows garnered smiles and affectionate remarks from folks at the preview as they hopped and scampered around the studio, a fun balance to the talented teenage artists performing more challenging roles. The event opened with the “Chocolate (Spanish Dance)” scene, helmed by a soloist displaying strong arm lines and confident turns, outfitted in a Romantic tutu with layers of black tulle and red trim; elsewhere, a peek at “Waltz of the Flowers” showed polished unison from a big group of dancers.
“It’s such a feel-good production,” Goh says. “There’s something in it for everybody. You can identify with the youngest cast member who’s a little mouse, and seeing them squeaking across the stage or picking up the cheese, that’s delighting someone in the audience. And then if you’re a super balletomane—so you’re a top fan of dance and you’ve seen a lot of ballet—well, you can come and see the new guest artists that we bring in, or the soloists that we’ve promoted.”
