Not your average Nutcracker

[fendrock]

My daughter (a suburban girl) is dancing in an Urban Nutcracker this season, which got me thinking about alternative Nutcrackers.

For example -- how about a Suburban Nutcracker?

Clara (who is called Greer in this version) arrives at the Land of Sweets in a mini van, and is picked up by her mother at the end.

Coffee has been rechoreographed as Starbucks, and Twizzlers dance the part of Candy Canes.

Any other creative new ideas?

[Tancos]

How about letting the mice win for a change, and then transporting Clara to the Land of Cheeses, home of the Limberger Fairy?

[coffee]

Your refrence to the land of cheeses reminds me of the version we've always talked about here at my studio in Wisconsin...

Its not the Land of sweets...its Lambeau Field (for thoes of you who don't follow football, thats the GB Packers stadium)

Instead of mice...its bears. and not just any bears...THe Bears

Cheese, Brats, and Beer, and linebackers all dance for her at Lambeau. And her prince...who else but the beloved #4- Brett Favre

[5odette5]

Hashing over a nutcracker rehearsal, I mispoke and the Rat King suddenly became the Lion King. This then prompted the idea of a whole new "Jungle Nutcracker". It would be set in South Africa during the victorian era so that the party scene would need to change very little. The snow flakes however, would be costumed in taupe and be known as the dust particles, in a magical dust storm. Ah, but the second act could be filled with the divertissements of various wildebeests... Spanish would be the dance of the black rhinoceras, Arabian would be a slithery snake or crocodile, Clowns would be hyenas, etc. I don't know about the Grand Pas de deux... perhaps some ornately costumed mythical or tribal characters?

[carbro]

Great idea, 5Odette5!

Personally, I think the GPdD featuring a Lioness and her Gorilla would exploit the inherent grace of the first and strength of the second. For his variation, there'd be vines strung over stage, of course!

Then there's the version some of my friends dreamed up, The Graham Cracker, in which the waltz of the flowers is performed by dancers doing contractions.