Hear the dance, see the music, enjoy a classic

Christmas trees. Eggnog. Mistletoes. Those are some of the most iconic symbols of the Christmas season. One could easily add “The Nutcracker” to the list.

If your holiday season isn’t complete without attending the storied Christmastime ballet, Aspen Santa Fe Ballet is serving up its annual production of “The Nutcracker” at Aspen District Theatre at the middle school with a 7:30 p.m. performance Friday, 1 p.m. and 5 p.m. shows Saturday, and a closing performance at 1 p.m. Sunday. 

“The Nutracker” is the story of a little girl named Clara who travels during her Christmas Eve dreams to the Land of Sweets with the Nutcracker Prince. Along the way, they battle the evil Rat King, travel to the Land of Snow, and ride a magical carousel around the world. 

“The Nutcracker” is based on a story written by E.T.A. Hoffmann in 1816, “Nußknacker und Mausekönig” (“The Nutcracker and the Mouse King”). It was first performed in St. Petersburg, Russia, in 1892. Created by choreographers Marius Petipa and Lev Ivanov in collaboration with composer Peter Ilyich Tchaikovsky, it was poorly received. According to Jennifer Homans in her book “Apollo’s Angels: A History of Ballet,” critics at the time called it “an insult to Russia’s Imperial Theatres” and “death for the company.”

After several failed attempts to revive the ballet in the first half of the 20th century, George Balanchine choreographed his own version for the New York City Ballet in 1954. It debuted in February and wasn’t associated with the holidays. But since the first act of the ballet takes place at a Christmas party, the play began to be performed at the holidays and “The Nutcracker” became a beloved yuletide tradition. 

“The Nutcracker” is the Super Bowl of ballet, that is if they played the Super Bowl almost 50 straight times. According to a 2021 article from the Reuters news service, for many ballet companies, the holiday staple attracts almost as many audience members as the rest of the year’s shows combined, accounting for a significant portion of annual ticket revenue. The New York City Ballet, one of the top ballet companies in the world, makes roughly 45% of its annual ticket sales from its roughly five-week run of “The Nutcracker.”

The cast of this weekend’s production includes students from the ASFB school and Folklórico program, alongside guest artists from around the country to perform in the professional ensemble.

“‘The Nutcracker’ illustrates all that Aspen Santa Fe Ballet is,” artistic director Tom Mossbrucker said in a release. “It highlights our educational programs. It displays our live performance commitment. We’ve incorporated our Folklórico program, so it’s really like all the different elements of Aspen Santa Fe Ballet coming together for this magical holiday program”

Boston Ballet principal dancer Patrick Yocum is returning to Aspen for the second year in a row to dance the lead role of the Nutcracker Prince. Fellow Boston Ballet dancer Haley Schwan will join him, performing the role of the Sugar Plum Fairy. The dancers are taking a brief hiatus from their company to perform in the ASFB production.

“We do 45 shows here in Boston,” Yocum said. “Back in the summer Haley and I got approval from our director to skip one week here in Boston to come to Aspen. Then, as soon as it’s over, we go right back to Boston and we’ll do another 30 shows here.”

Yocum estimates he will dance the lead role of the prince roughly 10 times in Boston in addition to his four performances in Aspen. In the other Boston performances, he will dance smaller roles. 

Yocum said the upcoming performances with Aspen Santa Fe Ballet are the highlight of the season for him. 

“It’s fantastic,” he said. “The elevation is challenging. It’s hard to acclimate in one day, which is normally what I get. We come in very, very late to the process. The other dancers are working so hard and they’re excellent dancers and artists. We are definitely guests of the company. I could not ask for a nicer set of individuals, a nicer set of artists. I’ve met so many cool people doing this. We feel very, very welcomed, but going from sea level to 8,000 feet in one day definitely adds to the challenge.”

Yocum grew up north of Philadelphia in the small town of Souderton. He came to ballet relatively late, when he was a teenager. 

“I was always in the theater,” he said. “I wanted to be on Broadway when I was younger. I had no dance training and somebody told me, ‘You better go get some if you want to have any chance of making it on Broadway.’ So I got a teacher near my hometown, and he got me started on the path.”

Yocum began training seriously when he was 15. When he was 17, he did a year of intensive training at the Pittsburgh Valley Theater School and at 18 he joined the Boston Ballet School. He spent one year in the school and then two years as an apprentice at Boston Ballet’s Junior Co. 

“At that time, the company was really reaching down into the second company and pulling up younger talent just because they needed bodies,” Yocum said. “So I had a ton of performance opportunities when I was still an apprentice, which, I’m sad to say for the younger dancers today, doesn’t happen as much these days. So my timing was excellent. I was very, very lucky.”

In 2011 at the age of 21, in what can only be described as a remarkable rise to stardom, he joined the main company of the Boston Ballet. in the span of six years Yocum had gone from relative novice to a member of one of the most prestigious ballet companies in the world. In 2017, Yocum was promoted to principal dancer of the Boston Ballet. The company has almost 60 dancers, roughly half men and half women. 

The repertoire of the Boston Ballet is known for being cutting edge and experimental. The company often premieres new ballets from Europe, many of which go on to further acclaim. 

Performing in a premier ballet is “terrifying,” Yocum said. “There are moments where it feels like destiny because it feels so right and other times you sort of have to fit into somebody else’s vision in a certain way, like you are molded by the choreographers and you just do your best. But it’s an honor to premiere stuff in the United States. Sometimes you do receive the backlash — we do stuff that challenges our audiences, ballets they don’t necessarily even like, but that is the nature of art. We’re entertainers, but we’re also artists.”

Yocum is 35 years old and feels like he can dance into his 40s. 

“Being an older artist is easier in some ways,” he said. “You learn the pitfalls. You learn what hurts you, learn how to deal with pain. You learn how to work with people. It’s one thing to have this incredible virtuosity of a young dancer, the explosive talent. But there’s something to be said for subtlety, for knowledge that you gain over the years, for somebody that has a lighter touch, more musicality.”

It is the musicality of “The Nutracker” that Yocum says is the true reason has endured for over 130 years.

“There’s a famous quote from George Balanchine about ‘The Nutcracker’ in which he says, ‘See the music, hear he dance,’” Yocum said. “If I had one wish for the audience, it’s for them to get a greater appreciation of the miracle of the music of ‘The Nutracker’. Tchaikovsky’s work is miraculous. It’s got so much depth. This is not belittling the ballet, but the ballet is there to amplify what the music can do for people. The music is transcendent. It’s iconic, it brings people so much joy. We’re here to turn that up ten times 10. That’s what my hope is.”

For more information and tickets visit www.aspensantafeballet.com