Every year, there are a handful of signs that it's the holiday season in New York City: Christmas trees for sale on sidewalks, poinsettias in building lobbies, white lights wrapped around street-poles, and the “Dance of the Sugar Plum Fairy” playing in nearly every store.
Not all of these signs are happily received. Take The Nutcracker. The ballet is a staple of the season, and depending on your sensibilities, its overplay may have turned this high-brow ballet to low-brow menace.
But New Yorker and New York Times columnist Marina Harss urges you to see the art.
“I actually adore The Nutcracker,” she said.
Clik here to view.
Harss tells WNYC’s Soterios Johnson, “It’s actually a very satisfying work and it’s more profound than people give it credit for.”
[Click on “LISTEN” to the entire interview. Some of The Nutcracker’s Harss mentions follow:]
“George Balanchine’s The Nutcracker” New York City Ballet through January 3, 2016 at the David H. Koch Theater. (It's also being screened on local movie theaters on Thursday, December 10, 2015, as a part of Lincoln Center at the Movies.)
The Yorkville Nutcracker Dances Patrelle, December 10-13, 2015, at Hunter College.
The Hip Hop Nutcracker at New Jersey Performing Arts Center on December 19, 2015.
The Nutcracker Gelsey Kirkland Academy of Classical Ballet at GK ArtsCenter through December 20, 2015.
"The Hard Nut" by Mark Morris Dance Group at BAM, December 12 – 20, 2015
Nutcracker Rouge through January 17, 2016, at Minetta Lane Theatre
Nutcracker Rouge 2013-14 from Company XIV on Vimeo.