≈ 2 hours · With intermission
Last updated: November 16, 2018
It’s such an honour to bring to Ottawa a vast world of dance, shaped by some of the most gifted and innovative artists working across a broad spectrum of styles and influences. As we continue to search out the best and brightest dance companies to present to you, our wonderfully receptive and enthusiastic audience, we invite you to explore the new and the familiar on this extraordinary journey of life in motion!
I love Alberta Ballet’s The Nutcracker. The company’s beautiful depiction of this timeless story masterfully combines magic and delight with authentic turn-of-the-century opulence. For so many people, The Nutcracker is a first dance experience that evolves into a life-long love affair with the art form – grandparents, kids and many friends in between maintain this special event as a beloved holiday ritual. Enjoy!
FUN FACTS!
In 2018, Alberta Ballet celebrates the 10th anniversary of choreographer Edmund Stripe’s The Nutcracker.
Pyotr Tchaikovsky was the first major composer to use the celesta (invented in 1886) in a work for full symphony orchestra. Listen for it in the Dance of the Sugar Plum Fairy.
Nearly 100 young local dancers take part in The Nutcracker production, which is often their first performing experience.
Message from Jean Grand-Maître
The Nutcracker is a magnificent tradition, a crescendo moment in a ballet company’s season.
The Nutcracker is a moment of pause for communities to celebrate art, tradition and some very beautiful ballet. This is true of Alberta Ballet’s production, choreographed by Edmund Stripe. The sets and costumes, designed by Emmy-award winner Zach Brown, create a purely magical staging. Inspired opulence meets historical authenticity in this turn-of-the-century Russian setting. The set of Act I is modelled after Tchaikovsky’s own St. Petersburg drawing room!
But truly, at the heart of the joy in returning to this production each year is the connection it has with children. In the audience, there are children who are seeing ballet for the first time. And on stage, local dance students live a dream-like thrill of performing on stage alongside professionals.
We’re well aware of the inspiring spark of this magical event. Many of our dancers identify The Nutcracker as the production that introduced them to ballet.
A warm thank you to Merilee Hodgins and Mary Ross for their invaluable support in rehearsing the children’s cast. They have been instrumental in preparing the students for their moment on stage!
I’d also like to extend a warm thank you to the wonderful team at the National Arts Centre. We’re honoured for this invitation to perform in Ottawa.
We live in a world that marches at a hectic cadence. Today, I welcome you to this moment in the majestic Southam Hall where you can pause with the ones you love. From the Alberta Ballet family to yours, we wish you a joyous holiday season.
Synopsis
Act I
Our story begins far away in Russia, at the turn of the 19th century. It is Christmas Eve and the Vishinsky family is welcoming guests to a party at their home. Their children, Klara and Nikolai, play ‘Blind Man’s Buff’ with the other young guests at the party. The game ends with Klara catching Nikolai. Presents are distributed and Klara and Nikolai lead the children in a boisterous dance. The parents, in turn, dance a courtly quadrille.
Suddenly, there is an interruption. It is the arrival of Drosselmeyer, Klara’s godfather. He has arrived at the party with tricks and mechanical dolls to entertain the guests. His dolls perform an elaborate play, telling the story of a man who once made a mousetrap that was so successful that it enraged the Rat Tsar. The Rat Tsar took revenge on the man by turning his nephew into a hideous nutcracker. The only way to break the spell was to find someone who would love the nutcracker, not for what he looked like, but for what he was.
In the play, the young soldier, who is changed into a nutcracker, is helped by a young ballerina who falls in love with him. She defeats the toy Rat Tsar by hitting him on the head with her slipper.
After the play, Drosselmeyer invites Klara to dance with him, mysteriously presenting her with a nutcracker of her own. Nikolai accidentally breaks the nutcracker, but Klara soon forgives him. Drosselmeyer fixes the nutcracker, and Klara and the girls play with their dolls, despite some interruption by the boys and a somewhat overexcited grandfather.
Grandfather and Babushka are invited to dance, the parents and children joining in the fun.
The party ends and the guests depart, the parents taking their weary children with them. Drosselmeyer also appears to leave the party. Klara looks around searching frantically for her nutcracker. But it is nowhere to be seen and Babushka packs Nikolai and Klara off to bed.
Later that night, Klara returns downstairs to the parlour to search for her nutcracker. The town hall clock strikes midnight and at once she is surrounded by mice. Suddenly, Drosselmeyer appears and sends the mice to sleep. He explains to Klara that it was actually he who was being portrayed in the play earlier that evening and it was he who had built the mousetrap that had angered the Rat Tsar. The Rat Tsar, in revenge, had transformed his nephew, Karl, into a nutcracker, the very nutcracker that Klara was now holding!
With Klara’s promise to love the nutcracker, Drosselmeyer employs his magic, causing the room to grow and themselves to shrink. The nutcracker now reappears, life-size to the now tiny Klara and Drosselmeyer. An army of soldiers stream out of the fort to engage in a battle with the cossack rats that have gathered on the other side of the parlour. With the nutcracker leading the soldiers, a fierce battle ensues and eventually the Rat Tsar himself appears. With his powerful magic, he attempts to attack Drosselmeyer, but the nutcracker intervenes to save his uncle.
Klara remembers the play that Drosselmeyer had presented in the parlour that evening and how the ballerina defeated the Rat Tsar by hitting him on the head with her shoe. She strikes the Rat Tsar on the head, distracting him long enough for the nutcracker to attack him with his own sceptre.
The Rat Tsar is mortally wounded and the nutcracker collapses in pain at the feet of Klara and Drosselmeyer. Drosselmeyer realizes that his plans, and his magic, are still not enough to transform his nephew. Klara and Drosselmeyer sense that their surroundings are changing and as Klara seeks help, she encounters wolves that she thinks are there to devour her precious nutcracker. However, the wolves are the attendants of the Snow Tsarina who appears in her sleigh. She instructs Drosselmeyer to stand the nutcracker up and with a wave of her hand, casts a spell that transforms the nutcracker back into Karl. It takes a moment or two for Karl to realize that he is human again. Once he does, he embraces Drosselmeyer and Klara, and thanks the Snow Tsarina for her life-restoring spell.
The Snow Tsarina summons her Snow Princesses and as Klara and Karl frolic in the snow, she guides them towards a mysterious palace far away in the distance.
Act II
The Snow Tsarina leads the sleigh to the gates of the Palace of the Sugar Plum Fairy. There they are greeted by the Palace Pages and are introduced to the Sugar Plum Fairy and her Cavalier. The Sugar Plum Fairy introduces guests from all over the world and one by one they dance for Klara and Karl in celebration. There are dancers from Spain, Arabia, China and Russia. Klara and Karl dance and are then entertained by the Palace Pages and the Waltz of the Flowers. The celebrations continue with the Sugar Plum Fairy and her Cavalier dancing for their honoured guests, concluding in a rousing finale.
Epilogue
Very early the next morning, Klara answers a knock at the front door. It is Drosselmeyer. He bids her good morning and, from under his cape, produces a nutcracker. A young man, who seems strangely familiar to Klara enters, and as he and Drosselmeyer depart together, Klara begins to wonder whether it was all a dream after all.
Artists
Canada’s National Arts Centre (NAC) Orchestra is praised for the passion and clarity of its performances, its visionary learning and engagement programs, and its unwavering support of Canadian creativity. The NAC Orchestra is based in Ottawa, Canada’s national capital, and has grown into one of the country’s most acclaimed and dynamic ensembles since its founding in 1969. Under the leadership of Music Director Alexander Shelley, the NAC Orchestra reflects the fabric and values of Canada, engaging communities from coast to coast to coast through inclusive programming, compelling storytelling, and innovative partnerships.
Since taking the helm in 2015, Shelley has shaped the Orchestra’s artistic vision, building on the legacy of his predecessor, Pinchas Zukerman, who led the ensemble for 16 seasons. Shelley’s influence extends beyond the NAC. He serves as Principal Associate Conductor of the Royal Philharmonic Orchestra in the UK and Artistic and Music Director of Artis—Naples and the Naples Philharmonic in the United States. In addition to his other conducting roles, the Pacific Symphony in Los Angeles’s Orange County announced Shelley’s appointment as its next Artistic and Music Director. The initial five-year term begins in the 2026-2027 season, with Shelley serving as Music Director-Designate from September 2025. Principal Guest Conductor John Storgårds and Principal Youth Conductor Daniel Bartholomew-Poyser complement Shelley’s leadership. In 2024, the Orchestra marked a new chapter with the appointment of Henry Kennedy as its first-ever Resident Conductor.
The Orchestra has a rich history of partnerships with renowned artists such as James Ehnes, Angela Hewitt, Renée Fleming, Hilary Hahn, Jeremy Dutcher, Jan Lisiecki, Ray Chen, and Yeol Eum Son, underscoring its reputation as a destination for world-class talent. As one of the most accessible, inclusive and collaborative orchestras in the world, the NAC Orchestra uses music as a universal language to communicate the deepest of human emotions and connect people through shared experiences.
A hallmark of the NAC Orchestra is its national and international tours. The Orchestra has performed concerts in every Canadian province and territory and earned frequent invitations to perform abroad. These tours spotlight Canadian composers and artists, bringing their voices to stages across North America, the United Kingdom, Europe, and Asia.
Company Dancers
Kira Anderson
Eli Barnes
Brittany Broussard
John Canfield
Jason Cao
Gabrielle Chenard
Tanya Chumak
Zacharie Dun
Melissa Eguchi
Alexandra Gibson
Jennifer Gibson
Garrett Groat
Hanya Gutierrez
Scotto Hamed-Ramos
Seira Iwamoto
Mariko Kondo
Alan Ma
Kelley McKinlay
Reilley McKinlay
Sayuri Nakanii
Taryn Nowels
Hikaru Osakabe
Allison Perhach
Liam Reid
Kuu Sakuragi
Yoshiya Sakurai
Luna Sasaki
William Sheriff Jr.
Heather Thomas
Laura Vande Zande
Alberta Ballet Trainees
Victoria Mary Finlay Robinson, Shiori Otsu, Erika Hara, Braden Falusi, Guiherme Ventura, Alexander Bishop
Ottawa Students
Mice
Aurora Allaby-Déziel
Morgan Arbuthnot
Lucia Betnaza
Payton Carter
Alexander Craig-Browne
Isabelle Cummings
Béatrice de Grandpré-Champagne
Valentina El Haibi
Maxine Farha
Annabelle Hardy
Ashley Hash
Ava Holyome
Anne-Sophie Jollez
Katarina Kuiack
Béatrice Landry
Alice Lavrenova
Rielle Lefèvre-Hembroff
Capri Masferrer
Audrina Peebles
Natalie Quarrington
Anna Ross
Evelyn Thompson
Party Children
Ivy Benoy
Sasha Burrell
Claire Campbell
Benjamin Craig-Browne
Romy Delisle-Sanscartier
Charlie Devine
Tyler Fletcher
Henry Gallant
Naomi Gascho
Sophie Goulet
Scarlett Hash
Maïka Lalonde
Elizabeth Lifshin
Ella Machacek
Rowan Mee
Madeleine Mennie
Mia Pincombe
Lauren Shaikh
Iain Twigg
Aisha Winfield-Khan
Rats
Olivia Davis
Bianca de Belle
Émélie Garneau
Sophia Golshaeian
Eden Haley
Briana Hersey
Mackenzie Houle
Hannah Kreft
Camille Lafleur
Svea Larsson
Caroline LeFrançois
Myranda MacPherson
Janna Matoussova
Lauren McCabe
Annabelle Mennie
Catherine Ollivier
Clara Shales
Soldiers
Brooklyn Baker
Eloïse Bauer-Beazer
Emily Gratton
Annaleise Kanstrup
Natasha Kleman
Andrea Kobetic
Gabrièle Lavoie
Mikhail Lavrenov
Sophie Legault
Hailey Leggett
Sasha Mee
Mackenzie Mulvihill
Clara Poirier
Liliane Slauenwhite-Rochefort
Olivia Taylor
Clare Wilgosh
Kahya Yamada
Palace Pages
Abby Breadner
Grace Chamberland
Piper Davies
Angie Di Iorio
Sofia Di Marco
Toby Finney
Iris Fisher
Téla Green
Élysée Labrosse
Alexa Lacasse
Ella Langis
Elodie Ménard
Frida Pohl
Anaïs Sanscartier
Emily Tavares
Zoë Walters
Zara Winfield-Khan
International Alliance of Theatrical Stage Employees