"Clara's Nutcracker" prepares to take center stage

Christmas is just over a month away, and while most Troy University students won’t be on campus for the holidays, Troy’s Theatre and Dance department is putting on a traditional Christmas performance with a modern twist before campus empties for winter break. 

“Clara’s Nutcracker” is the 1940s adaptation of the Christmas ballet, “The Nutcracker,” featuring a 16-year-old Clara (rather than the traditional young child) living in post-World War II America. After being gifted a nutcracker from her grandfather, Clara is transported to a dream world before returning to real life at the end of the production. 

“That's such a moment in history where, we're finally taking a deep sigh of relief, and that we're rebuilding and becoming strong and unified again, and things are gradually changing for the better, especially, of course, finding peace,” said the show’s Co-Director Dominique Angel. “And then thinking, it would be nice to not think of Clara as such a little girl and maybe let her have all the innocence still of childhood, but yet still, maturity is coming and you're seeing things maybe differently than you would have as a child.” 

Angel said the reason for such a drastic stylistic and setting departure from the traditional dance was purely because she was bored of it and wanted to do something new that no one had quite seen before. 

“Generally, with the nutcracker, when you see other companies or ensembles studios doing it, you have the big ball gowns, and it’s set in the late 1800s, and we didn't really want to go that route,” Angel said. “I didn't really want to go that route.” 

The show isn’t just visually different though; it features a much broader array of dances than just the ballet you would expect from “The Nutcracker’s” formula. 

“You’re going to have these people in point shoes, and this is going to happen over here, and the choreography is going to be different for different people, but it'll follow a formula,” Angel said. “And we're not following that formula.  

“We have hip hop involved in there and like the soldiers in the battle scene are tapping. Candy canes’ dance is James Boyd choreography, I don’t know what you even call that; it’s just really fun.” 

One of the dancers, playing the roles of Snowflake and Gingersnap, said this change from the typical “The Nutcracker” performance came with some difficulties and hard times, but also a greater reward. 

“Some sections of the choreography pushed me outside my comfort zone,” said Sky Stracener, a junior dance major from Enterprise, Alabama. “There were moments when I felt tired or frustrated, but working through those moments with the support of my teachers and castmates made me stronger.  

“Overcoming those obstacles is part of what makes performing so rewarding.” 

Another one of the dancers was grateful for the challenge and change of pace that the new, more modern choreography provided. 

“Making it different allows us to show creativity, bring in new themes and make the performance more relatable to today’s audience,” said Jordan Lewis, who plays the lead, Clara. Lewis is a sophomore dance major. “It also gives the dancers an opportunity to explore roles in a unique way rather than repeating the same traditional choreography.  

“The changes help make the story feel alive again.” 

Angel said this reaction from the students was exactly what she was hoping for with the production. 

“I think that's really the inspiration, that we have the students in this department, both theater and dance, that are so open to anything new and different, and that's inspiring right there,” Angel said. “To know that you have people that will come along with you on this, on this journey of discovery of a new Nutcracker.”