NEW IDEAS: UNCSA dance dean unleashes Nutcracker

Shortly after Ethan Stiefel became the dance dean at UNC School of the Arts in July of 2008, he said that choreographing was not his thing.

He is saying something different now.

The school's annual production of The Nutcracker will open Saturday at the Stevens Center. Stiefel, also the best male dancer in ballet today, is not only overseeing the show but also promising a restaging with new choreography by him and school instructors Nigel Burley, Warren Conover and Susan McCullough.

"I was able to get inspired creatively to do it," said Stiefel, who will choreograph much of Act II and make it more cohesive with Act I. "I do have ideas. I do have a voice."

The changes in Nutcracker represent a departure from the production overseen by Robert Lindgren and his wife, Sonja Tyven, for more than 40 years. Stiefel has identified several areas for improvement with the goal of telling the Nutcracker story "in a more entertaining and clearer fashion."

"I've meshed this kind of sophistication for classical ballet with what I'd say (are) old-fashioned showmanship and entertainment value," Stiefel said.

What Stiefel described as the "real-deal" traditions of classical ballet will be upheld where appropriate -- in the famous pas de deux scenes, for example. Entertainment will come in the form of such attractions as a "tribute moment" to the late Michael Jackson and baby mice being added to the battle between the mice and toy soldiers.

There will also be elements of martial arts and Peking-circus performance in some of the movements.

Four advanced students with multiple roles in the coming Nutcracker -- Trey Mauldwin, Laura Chachich, Cooper Verona and Kelly Mackie -- were interviewed for this article. All but Mauldwin have also performed in a Nutcracker led by Lindgren.

The dancers said that the differences between Lindgren's and Stiefel's approaches have manifested in the length of rehearsals: Stiefel's began in September, shortly after high-school classes began, whereas Lindgren's used to start in October.

And where Lindgren simply set already-made choreography on the dancers, Stiefel has had to start from scratch -- a situation that has led to dancers being "more a part of the creative process," Chachich said.

"We had a little bit of input," she said. "It was more of collaboration."

Mackie expressed similar views.

"They made sure that the students were really involved and enjoyed what they were doing," Mackie said. "They didn't want to create something that wouldn't want to make the dancers want to feel something.... They'd asked, ‘How does it feel?' Or they'd say, ‘This section isn't working. Could you guys maybe figure out something that would work better?'"

Verona said that Stiefel even had movements for certain roles tried out on dancers regardless of whether the dancers were later cast in those roles.

Mauldwin seemed to welcome the more collaborative approach.

"I'm not stepping into a role, thinking about who has done this before me," he said. "I don't have to breathe new breath into a role. My breath and my energy are already injected into it. You're going to be watching us on stage; it's not a role we've stepped into.... I think we're more connected to it that way."

Stiefel described having created "a real dialogue and rapport with my students." Sometimes, students have "done something by accident," and Stiefel has decided to keep it, concluding it was better.

"At certain moments, they have to make it their own, because it is they who have to get out there and do it," Stiefel said. "What might feel good to me may not be feeling good to them or, in certain cases, be appropriate for students.

"You can come in with a game plan, but if you don't allow yourself to have flexibility, if you don't allow for that input and dialogue to happen, I think it'd be very frustrating."

kkeuffel@wsjournal.com<
727-7337

UNC School of the Arts will present Tchaikovsky's The Nutcracker beginning Saturday at the Stevens Center. Shows will be at 2 p.m. and 7:30 p.m. Saturday; at 2 p.m. next Sunday; at 7:30 p.m. Dec. 9-12; at 2 p.m. Dec. 12 and 13; and at 7 p.m. Dec. 13. Tickets are $25-$66, with discounts for families, groups and children 13 and under. See www.uncsa.edu/performances or call 721-1945.