By Ken Severson
Pyotr Ilyich Tchaikovsky wrote “The Nutcracker” but imagine if jazz great Duke Ellington had done it instead?
Or even Run DMC.
Christina Voreis, executive director and co-founder of Ballet INitiative, can imagine it.
Voreis and her colleague Lauren Nasci, both of Carmel, will direct “Nutcracker with a Twist.”
Three public shows of Ballet INitiative’s “Nutcracker with a Twist” will be presented Dec. 15, 16 and 17 at the Basile Theatre at the Athenaeum in Indianapolis. The Dec. 15-16 performances begin at 7:30 p.m. The Dec. 17 show is a 2 p.m. matinee.
It will be the fourth consecutive season that Ballet INitiative will present the show.
“We do it to jazz music,” Voreis said. “We have different scenes like with the party. We have flappers and we also have tap-dancing, contemporary, hip-hop and also the dances of the period, the Charleston and foxtrots, while sticking to the story closely.”
Set to both the original Tchaikovsky score and Duke Ellington’s big band jazz, Ballet INitiative’s “Nutcracker with a Twist” updates the classic story setting the scene during the Roaring 20s. This story is the told about the friendship between Clara and a living doll, the Nutcracker.
The performance includes local choreographers and features youth dance students from dance academies in Indiana and a few dancers from out of state.
Voreis and her partners at the Ballet INitiative wanted an updated, more modern story, while at the same time not wanting to lose the premise of Tchaikovsky’s original.
She said the idea for this was a collaboration of the founding members of Ballet INitiative along with other local choreographers and dancers.
“Definitely a group idea,” Voreis said. “While we have some different dancing in our ‘Nutcracker,’ the majority is keeping in traditional ballet. You will still see tutus and pointed shoes.”
Tickets for Ballet INitiative’s ‘Nutcracker with a Twist’ are available at athenaeumindy.org/events/
