The waltz of the Carrizo Plains wildflowers is 13-year-old Violet Nielsen’s favorite part of the San Luis Obispo Movement Arts Center‘s (SLOMAC) The Nutcracker: A San Luis Obispo Story.
“It’s just so pretty and just very different,” said Nielsen, who participates in three of the upcoming production’s dances, including performing as a flower.
Wildflowers and a monarch butterfly ballerina fluttered across the rehearsal stage on Dec. 11, combining ballet and contemporary dance into the piece that Nielsen enjoys so much because of the way she feels as she’s moving.
“A lot of contracting and opening and feeling very free,” she said.
For eight years Nielson has taken dance at SLOMAC, which she describes as one big family—from the owners, teachers, and parents to the seniors in high school down to the littles. While she’s participated in portions of The Nutcracker before, Dec. 20 and 21 mark SLOMAC’s first ever full Nutcracker performance. But this version of the traditional ballet takes place in 1894 San Luis Obispo, when the city celebrated its first Christmas.
With help from the SLO History Center, SLOMAC owners Ryan Lawrence and Maartje Hermans-Lawrence incorporated local history and culture into the ballet.
Hermans-Lawrence said the whole dance world becomes The Nutcracker at this time of year, so it wasn’t something that SLOMAC felt pulled to do in past years. This year, though, they wanted to try it, she said, but knew that it wouldn’t be traditional. Hermans-Lawrence said they wanted to make it specific to the area and specific to SLOMAC.
“We tried to make it more Clara’s story on Buchon Street,” she said. “She kind of goes on an adventure and ends up in Chinatown … where she sees a bunch of people she’s never seen before.”
In 1894, SLO was building a railroad with the help of Chinese workers, rancheros were working cattle, shepherds were minding their flocks for the dairy industry, and miners were mining for mercury. SLOMAC swapped these characters into the dances that make up the bulk of Clara’s dream sequence, as well as tarantulas and a rattlesnake.
Cal Poly Costume Shop manager Laina Babb designed costumes, and dancers’ parents built sets in the parking lot on weekends. One parent dropped off freshly painted axes for the dancing miners before rehearsal on Dec. 11.
“The only axes we found were Halloween axes with blood all over them,” Hermans-Lawrence said with a laugh. “I would have just left that if it wasn’t for these kinds of people. … It’s just been amazing.”
Parent Hannah Wassenberg, who will be sharing the stage with one of her two children and other dancers during the Mother Ginger sequence, said that sort of close-knit, supportive community is one of the reasons she decided to sign her kids up for the conservatory dance program at SLOMAC.
Wassenberg has been dancing since she was 2 years old and said she was reticent to do the same with her kids until she went to one of SLOMAC’s performances. She was impressed with the quality and technicality of the dancing, so she spoke with both Hermans-Lawrence and Lawrence, and she liked what they had to say. That was six years ago.
“She puts the kids’ humanity and life experiences first,” Wassenberg said of Hermans-Lawrence. “And how does dance help us with that expression.”
She’s performed in a couple of hundred Nutcrackers over the years, Wassenberg said, adding that SLOMAC really went out on a limb to put on a unique performance, leaning into their dancers’ personalities and choreographing dances that worked for them. For instance, as Mother Ginger, Wassenberg was able to pull in some of the contemporary dance she’s focused on as an adult.
Describing the performance as a “lighthearted take on a really challenging job,” Mother Ginger is a laundress with children and laundry flying everywhere.
“Mostly a celebration, celebrating the chaos of motherhood,” Wassenberg said. “It’s a super fun part and really unique, because it’s usually played by a man.”
Lily Cate Treadwell, who performs as Dream Clara, watches the Mother Ginger sequence unfold and many of the other dances as well, weaving her own performances in between and among them. The 17-year-old has been dancing since she was 1 and has been with SLOMAC for almost five years.
Her favorite Nutcracker dance is the “Grand Pas de Deux” a five-minute-long duet with the Nutcracker Prince, Justin Grapevine. Performed en pointe by Treadwell, she said it’s a nice shift in music from the rest of the show, and it’s also where she feels the most connected with her dance partner.
“It’s the longest dance that I do. Definitely, it’s the most tiring and hard on my body,” she said. “It’s really hard to stay really present in the moment when I’m thinking about all the dances that come next.”
If you leave the connection, if you stray from relaying the tenderness that’s needed for the sequence, it can ruin the scene, she said. But she’s up for the challenge.
“There’s definitely more to it than just choreography,” she said. “I love dance so much because I struggle to communicate my feelings. … It allows me to convey a lot with people I might not even know, and they can feel what I’m communicating.” Δ
Editor Camillia Lanham is always up for a challenge. Send recommendations to clanham@newtimesslo.com.
This article appears in Dec 19-29, 2024.