A NUTCRACKER was created by choreographer Katie Rose McLaughlin, director Joshua William Gelb, and music director Ian Axness from a story by Dan O'Neil. It was presented in a fully staged workshop performance December 12-14, 2014 at the Knockdown Center as a collaboration between JV Squad and Designated Movement Company in association with Sprung Floor Solutions. Walsh (sets), Josh Smith (lights), Diego Montoya (costumes) and Gavin Price (sound) featuring performances by Gary Chryst, Kaitlyn Gilliland, Pierre Guilbault, Lisa Lockwood, Valda Setterfield and introducing Louisa Blakely with musical performances by Ian Axness and Sara Kommer. A NUTCRACKER Our Nutcracker boils down the cast of what is usually 60+ into a 7 person, multi-generational performance that tracks the life of a woman and dancer named Clara. We selected four moments within Clara’s life to portray simultaneously upon four different stages: Clara’s childhood, young adulthood, middle, and old age. Set to a new arrangement of Tchaikovsky’s beloved score, live musicians accompanied this playful yet poignant exploration of coming-of-age-stories bookended by tragic death, of leaving things unsaid, and of loved ones left behind. Traversing synchronously a single lifetime, A Nutcracker reinvents a classic narrative for a contemporary audience of all ages, inviting them to wander freely and explore a dreamlike world in which the breadth of life’s manifold emotions and experiences harmoniously coexist.
