By Amy Patton

It’s tough to think about a extra iconic storytelling of the magic of Christmas than George

Balanchine’s traditional ballet fantasy, “The Nutcracker.”

However there’s no want to depart city to enter this dreamy wonderland. A captivating two-act iteration of sugar plum fairies and waltzing flowers set to Tchaikovsky’s symphonic masterpiece is on stage proper right here in Key West for a restricted run by way of Sunday, Dec. 11 on the Tennessee Williams Theatre on Faculty Street.

However within the islands, the perennial dance show is reworked with a twist. Troopers are sailors, fairies are fish, and conch shell-adorned characters twirl by way of nautical, underwater scenes.

The 100-cast repertory boasts a formidable vary of performers, together with locals from the Nutcracker Key West studio and imports from the New York Dance Undertaking. The merging of the 2 dance firms is each difficult and joyous, mentioned director and producer

Matthew Rawls, including that the mix makes the present distinctive. Rawls offers credit score to Joyce Stahl, the preliminary creator of the tropical tackle the ballet.

 “She created this adaptation of Nutcracker in 2005 to replicate the photographs and themes of the island,” mentioned Rawls on the gown rehearsal on Dec. 5. “We’ve taken her imaginative and prescient and introduced it to the stage with this.”

Stahl helmed the present and introduced it to the native stage each two years since its inception. When she was unable to proceed the manufacturing, Stahl donated all of the present’s property (costumes, units, and many others.) to the nonprofit Performing Arts Heart Key West, which operates the Tennessee Williams Theatre.

The Nutcracker’s coming-of-age story of Clara and her household’s Christmas Eve gathering with mates (sure, there’s an enormous tree) dissolves into elaborate dance sequences, bringing her crush on a boy on the social gathering right into a full flight of creativeness. Cute Key West rooster sprites peck and scamper all through Clara’s “dream.” The scenes evolve into snowy egrets flying by way of the evening amongst moonbeam mud. Audiences and kids residing within the Keys’ local weather will delight within the falling snow that floats upon the Sea Star Fairy, the Angelfish and the finned mermaid, a few of whom characterize the present’s Royal Courtroom.

So many dancers are concerned within the manufacturing that the present has been break up into two casts: “Reese,” named for the dancer Reese Kight enjoying the lead character of Clara, and “Nela” for ballerina Nela Sulak. “We double-cast each different present,” mentioned Rawls, “in order that we are able to alternate roles” of the ballet. 

Tchaikovsky’s hovering rating isn’t produced by a reside orchestra on this ballet, however is an present observe from a earlier efficiency.

Credit score have to be given to the costume and set design on this onstage confection. Dancers are bedecked with hand-sewn clothes which can be reserved just for the biennial Christmas present. ”You may put these items in a museum,” mentioned Rawls. 

A sunken ship prop piece bears the title “Atoeshu,” a tongue-in-cheek nod to the ballet en pointe slipper and Key West’s famed Atocha shipwreck.

The gem stones are one other extravagance of the Nutcracker Key West. The ballet’s manufacturing workforce borrowed an astonishing $5 million value of jewels from native jewelers Neptune Designs, Emeralds Worldwide, Blue Sophia and Pacific Jewellery.

Should you’re shut sufficient to the stage, you’ll be able to see the glowing treasured stones that adorn a few of the prima ballerinas; together with an 11-carat diamond ring on mortgage to the present.

Gracing world phases since its 1892 premiere in Moscow, the Nutcracker’s endearing and nostalgic parts have helped preserve this traditional vacation ballet alive. The ballet finally made its approach to Manhattan in 1954, danced by the NYC Ballet Co., and continues, in lots of variations, to thrill audiences in small cities like Key West.

“This present solely exists as a result of the group needs it and helps the humanities,” Rawls mentioned. “It’s a real reflection of the island’s tradition. Because the Keys develop into extra commercialized, this ballet is among the final holdovers from an earlier era of artistic individuals.”

Within the phrases of the good playwright Tennesee Williams, whose eponymous theater is house to this 12 months’s Nutcracker Key West, “An artist should consider in himself. Your perception is contagious.”

So, too, is that this charming and infectious vacation celebration. 

“It’s the proper reward we can provide to our island metropolis,” Rawls mentioned.