Anne Posted January 1, 2019 Share Posted January 1, 2019 (edited) Yesterdays performance of John Neumeier's Nutcracker was full of wonderful surprises - and of a completely unexpected nature! Not until we got the printed programme did we get a hint of something unusual coming up: For every main roles, 3 or 4 dancers were listed, and among the names for the Marie's role was that of Alina Cojocaru, who is a favorite of mine. First I thought it was a mistake but the programmeselling lady said (with a slightly mischievious smile) that it was not and that we should wait and see. Before the performance started John Neumeier himself appeared and addressed the audience with a little speech: Not only was it New Year's Eve, it was also the 300th performance of his Nutcracker, and therefore he had decided to make it a bit special: All the main roles were danced by 3 or 4 dancers at the same time, so that everybodies' favorite dancer would be on stage that night - so he said. It sounds impossible but it actually worked well and was absolutely hilarious to watch. Sometimes the dancers made the steps completely synchronized, sometimes individualized, and sometimes they shared a solo by dancing in turn. Like Neumeier, with a smile, said in German, playing with the words (and therfore impossible to translate): "Sie werden nebeneinander, nacheinander und manchmal vielleicht durcheinander tanzen..." The stage was a bit crowded sometimes and it must have been quite a big job to coordinate it. But it worked marvelously and made the story even more fun or, maybe one shoud say, fun in an other way than the ordinary way. A perfect New year's Eve treat! Edited January 1, 2019 by Anne Link to comment
diane Posted January 1, 2019 Share Posted January 1, 2019 Sounds wonderful! So nice when something tlike this works out! (an attempt at translation: "...they will dance next to each other, one after the ohter, and sometimes mixed-up with each other...." ??) -d- Link to comment
Drew Posted January 1, 2019 Share Posted January 1, 2019 Sounds quite extraordinary! How fun that you got to be there— Link to comment
Anne Posted January 1, 2019 Author Share Posted January 1, 2019 Yes, you could translate it that way, only I'm not sure whether "mixed-up" includes the slightly chaotic note of "durcheinander". Link to comment
diane Posted January 2, 2019 Share Posted January 2, 2019 @Anne: Yes, indeed; "durcheinander" connotes more chaos. -d- Link to comment
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