VIDEO: “The Brooklyn Nutcracker”: The unorthodox adaptation of a classic

December 8, 2017 By Liliana Bernal Special to the Brooklyn Daily Eagle

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At the Irondale Theater in Downtown Brooklyn, Lynn Parkerson observes, corrects, perfects and stops the show. Wednesday was the last rehearsal of “The Brooklyn Nutcracker,” and it had to be as accurate as the show that about 60 dancers will perform in from Dec. 7 to 16.

Parkerson is the artistic director of the Brooklyn Ballet. Since September, the company has been rehearsing for the performance, which brought sold out seats last year.

When Parkerson created this interpretation of the Christmas classic, she did it with the intention of paying tribute to the borough’s diversity.

“I wanted it to reflect Brooklyn, which is a place with many many communities,” she said.

The result was a fusion of ballet and other dance styles like belly dancing and Native American and West African dance. On the stage are hip-hop dancers flexing, popping and locking along to Poyt Tchaikovsky’s original classical score.

Through robotic dance, Michael Fields, choreographer and dancer, transforms Uncle Drosselmeyer into a character that he calls The MC, who moves gracefully while the lights of his costume brighten with his movements.

“Lynn had wanted to experiment with street vernacular and my street vernacular hip-hop is be bopping, robotic dance,” he explained. “The great thing about Lynn is that she allows us to really come with our styles and spirit.”

The backdrop and costumes were created in collaboration with designers and hackers, who enhanced the snowflake tutus and the Drosselmeyer costume, which features glittering LED lights that react to the dancers’ movements through motion sensors.

“That was something that interested me now that the technology is so invisible,” Parkerson said. “I thought it’d be interesting to use technology to enhance some of the different qualities of dance and ballet in particular.”

The director reflected on how there is something in the structure and language of the ballet that fits well with technology. “It comes almost to increase the magic of ballet,” she said.

When Parkerson decided to form the Brooklyn Ballet in 2002, she did it with the idea of using her experiences as a dancer to create a company that preserved the ballet discipline, but at the same time was contemporary and could be integrated into the community.

“I didn’t want to isolate into a kind of art … a tradition that people don’t have access to,” Parkerson said

Part of the dancers that perform in this show are children who are involved in the Brooklyn Ballet School, many of them from public schools where the ballet has programs to promote new talent.

“There is no need to not be innovative, not be political or social,” the director said. “I wanted to make it something for Brooklyn and for everyone in Brooklyn.”