A Classic Reimagined (And Recorded): Nutcracker 2020

It’s a tradition: every even-numbered year, Dance Arts Academy and Company Dance Traverse mark the holiday season by mounting a full production of Peter Tchaikovsky’s beloved 1892 Christmas-themed ballet, The Nutcracker. In 2020, those plans clashed with COVID-19, leaving directors Sue Buck and Betsy Carr with a dilemma: cancel the show or find a way to adapt. They chose the latter, and that path led to The Nutcracker Reimagined, an ambitious six-camera film production of the iconic ballet that will soon be available to stream online.

“We have 11 graduating seniors this year that have been in the company for 10 or 11 years,” Carr tells The Ticker, explaining the decision to move forward with a modified Nutcracker production. “They’ve been dancing at the studio since they were three. [Our dancers] grow up thinking about what their next Nutcracker role will be, and they work hard for that. So we couldn't just say ‘No, we're not going to do it.’ It’s a really special tradition, and with everything else that was happening, it didn't make any sort of sense to let that go.”

While The Nutcracker is a holiday season tradition, the scope of the production and the number of roles – Buck says there were approximately 150 dancers involved in this year’s Reimagined version – meant Dance Arts Academy had to start planning early for what a December performance might look like. Even under normal circumstances, Carr and Buck typically cast The Nutcracker in the summertime and start rehearsals in August. This year, they had to make the decision on whether to move forward with the production in May. At the time, their hope was that things would be back to normal by Christmas, and that live performances would be able to move forward at Milliken Auditorium. Northwestern Michigan College (which owns Milliken) pulled the plug on those plans in August, sending Carr and Buck looking for an alternative venue. After brief discussions with the City Opera House, though, it became clear that a live performance was not in the cards for 2020.

Carr and Buck then set to work turning the 11,000-square-foot Dance Arts Academy studio on Garfield Avenue into a suitable stand-in. That process involved everything from blacking out the windows to control lighting levels to installing state-of-the-art bipolar ionization HVAC systems that could help keep the environment safe. When weather permitted, rehearsals for the production moved outside. Zoom also proved to be an important tool, with Carr and Buck outfitting several rooms in the studio with cameras and monitors to keep dancers in small socially-distanced groups throughout the rehearsal process. Dancers were required to wear masks at all times, including on camera for the final film production.

It was a costly process. Between the studio modifications and the expense of hiring Hartwell Digital Media and Pierpont Productions (a pair of local film production companies) to capture and edit multi-camera footage of the ballet, Buck says Dance Arts Academy spent “thousands and thousands” of dollars to produce The Nutcracker Reimagined. To maximize opportunities for senior students, the ballet company also went forward with its usual strategy of double-casting the production, which meant making two separate full-length films. Those costs fall on top of what has already traditionally been a major investment for the business.

“We only do [The Nutcracker] every other year because it is such a beast to produce – financially, emotionally, and physically for our dancers as well as the production team,” Buck explains. “But the majority of our cost involved this time was the filming and the payroll for our faculty. Even with the sale of the DVDs, we will probably not even break even, and Betsy and I will probably not be able to pay ourselves.”

Despite all that, Buck and Carr say it was important to make sure their students had a positive experience to take away from 2020 – especially given that Company Dance Traverse dancers have come to see their final Nutcracker production as something of a rite of passage.

That’s certainly the case for Eirwen Moshier, a Traverse City Central High School senior who has been dancing since she was two years old. Now in her fifth Nutcracker production with Company Dance Traverse – and dancing the coveted lead role of the Sugar Plum Fairy – Moshier is grateful to have gotten what she considers to be her “full circle” moment with the company.

“My journey with Company Dance Traverse started when I was six or seven, and I've been a part of that community since then,” Moshier says. “I think five of the seniors and one Junior started in the same year I did, and we have grown up together. It's like one big family, and we've just continued to add people to that over time. So I think this year, even though we didn't get to do a live performance because of the pandemic, I think it was important to do The Nutcracker out of tradition – and to get to perform with my family one last time.”

DVDs and Blu-Rays for both casts of The Nutcracker Reimagined are currently available for purchase at Diva Dancewear (1015 S Garfield Ave). Starting December 11, the show will also be available to stream online through AnywhereSeat for an access fee of $41.