Next Tuesday, the company will be boarding a plane to Bangkok in Thailand for two guest performances of The Nutcracker, a Christmas Carol.

Our version of the Nutcracker was choreographed by Youri Vámos in 1988 for the Bonn Opera, and it has been a success ever since. Instead of telling the original story of the Nutcracker, Vámos focuses on Scrooge, the main character from a Christmas Carol by Charles Dickens. Scrooge, the heartless crank who despises Christmas fires Clara’s father on Christmas Eve ruining his chances of buying his beloved daughter a Nutcracker doll. After a evening visit from a devil, Scrooge is saved by the sugar fairy who manages to melt his heart in time to save everyones Christmas. The whole ballet is set to the original Tschaikovisky scores. We have been dancing Nutcracker for the past 7 years, and every show has been sold out so far.

Youri Vámos is known for his talent of turning traditional full length ballets into modern pieces. In each ballet Vámos is intrigued by the original music and its ability to convey character and emotional nuance to the audience. His choreography mirrors these characteristics through its particular movements that give each dancer a particular role. When we first learned Nutcracker, 6 years ago, we had the chance to work with Youri personally and his choreographic assistant and muse, the very talented Joyce Cuoco.

Joyce danced the role of Clara in the original cast of 1988, as well as many other roles set to Youris choreography. Vámos has a very particular style of dancing and acting, and there is no one better than Joyce Cuoco to pass it on. After working with him for so many years she knows what his corrections will be before he has even watched the rehearsal, and as the very talented dancer she was she is able to help us with the particular technique of his choreography. Also she has an amazing heart, but that’s my personal opinion 🙂

I found a video (how did we ever live without internet) of Joyce dancing the Nutcracker Pas de Deux. Its a perfect example of Vámos technical and extremely musical style, and also watching Joyce Cuoco never gets tired.

 

Have fun!

By Life Between Lines.