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The Sugar Rum Fairy? A freewheeling, jazzy reimagination of ‘The Nutcracker’

Dorrance Dance will perform their unique tap interpretation of the classical ballet to Duke Ellington’s The Nutcracker Suite on Dec. 14-15 at Cal Performances in Zellerbach Hall.

By Anne Brice

three dancers in the nutcracker suite - one dancer is jumping high in the air, while two others are sitting on a bench watching
Cal Performances will present Dorrance Dance's The Nutcracker Suite, on Dec. 14–15 at Zellerbach Hall.

Christopher Duggan
silhouettes of four dancers in the nutcracker suite pose on stage with a pink and sparkly background
Cal Performances will present Dorrance Dance's The Nutcracker Suite, on Dec. 14–15 at Zellerbach Hall.

Christopher Duggan
dancers perform on stage to the nutcracker suite
Cal Performances will present Dorrance Dance's The Nutcracker Suite, on Dec. 14–15 at Zellerbach Hall.

Christopher Duggan
about a dozen dancers in the nutcracker suite perform on stage. six are wearing rat masks and dancing around a group of dancers who look frightened.
Cal Performances will present Dorrance Dance's The Nutcracker Suite, on Dec. 14–15 at Zellerbach Hall.

Christopher Duggan
about a dozen dancers dressed in bright costumes with giant fabric flowers on their heads perform on stage in the nutcracker suite.
Cal Performances will present Dorrance Dance's The Nutcracker Suite, on Dec. 14–15 at Zellerbach Hall.

Christopher Duggan

December 13, 2024

Michelle Dorrance never set out to create a reimagination of The Nutcracker. As founder of the New York City-based Dorrance Dance, the celebrated tap dancer’s work often leans toward the experimental, fusing technology and the roots of tap in dynamic and new contexts. The 1892 classical ballet wasn’t really on her radar. 

But there was something in the back of her mind, a different kind of Nutcracker performance she’d seen as a kid with a score she couldn’t shake: Duke Ellington’s The Nutcracker Suite. She was 11 in North Carolina when she first heard it. Arranged by Ellington and Billy Strayhorn, the 31-minute album features jazzy interpretations of the original composition by Tchaikovsky. “It stuck with me ever since,” she said.

Today, more than three decades later, Dorrance and her artistic collaborators have created their own dance interpretation of the holiday classic, to be presented by UC Berkeley’s Cal Performances on Dec. 14-15. 

Dorrance said Ellington’s Nutcracker Suite, released in 1960, inspires a freedom of expression. “The score is just incredible,” she said “It’s so layered. It’s so innovative. I love what Ellington and Strayhorn do with tempo, with phrasing, with orchestration, with feel, with deep character work and percussive compositional work throughout.” 

The dancers in Dorrance Dance’s Nutcracker Suite play characters that were inspired by the original ballet, but which take on lives of their own. There’s the Sugar Rum Fairy and the Rat King. Clara is an outcast, and her dressmaker, Godfather Drosselmeier, is losing his grip on his magic. “That’s, in part, why some of the madness of the Christmas party ensues,” said Dorrance. 

For Dorrance, the opportunity to tell a story through the legacy of Black American artistic forms to a score that represents two of the greatest jazz composers in history was an honor. 

“The Nutcracker reaches a huge, really wide audience, and brings together a number of different folks across cultural interests and demographics into a space together,” she said. “This is really important to us right now — to give young people a glimpse of what we can imagine American culture can look like, that it can be more inclusive and joyful and uplifting.”

Buy tickets and learn more about The Nutcracker Suite on Cal Performances’ website.