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When WA Ballet’s Artistic Director, Ivan Cavallari, makes his choreographic debut in Australia this month, audiences will be in awe at all the whiz, bang and hi tech wizardry it contains. Cavallari’s The Nutcracker at His Majesty’s Theatre this September will not only embody the wonder of Tchaikovsky’s original vision but also a dash of the new fangled. This September The Nutcracker goes electro as it enters the age of the computer.
‘I’ve been focusing, I would say, on starting with the original story but have developed my own dramaturgy,’ said Cavallari of his modern day Nutcracker. ‘In mine, Clara is a little older than usually. She’s around 16. So I’ve been practically analysing the world of the teenager in this very difficult passage between being a teenager and being a woman… or rather becoming a woman.
‘It’s a love story based on nowadays where the computer changes a little bit our way of communicating, so that now we are having a different way we can approach, we can go into chat line and tell people that we are something that we are not. So it’s trying to touch all of that without spoiling the magic of the story. It keeps all the traditional elements but I use them in a different way. And there still is the worldism, the two worlds: the fantasy world and the reality world, like in the original story but from a totally different approach and from a totally different narrative.’
What gives Cavallari’s debut a couple of extra punches is not just the choreography – which promises to be stunning – but the sets created by renowned Italian theatre and opera designer Edoardo Sanchi. In fact, these sets are so amazing and impressive (as in big) that their sheer scope saw the entire production of The Nutcracker being bumped back from May to now. Also creating buzz is the inspired by the retro romance of Wheels & Doll Baby haute couture costuming by Christina Smith, plus the fact that Tchaikovsky’s score will be played by the West Australian Symphony Orchestra.
‘There is a pressure of course,’ Cavallari said. ‘There is an expectation with my first choreography here in Australia. It’s the first time they will see something from me. So this is already a pressure itself. And then we had to raise money for it. And it comes at the end of the season. I mean, there are lots of ands that I could add to tell you how much the pressure is. But as a character I quite enjoy this kind of pressure. And as long as my dancers are coping with that then I’m fine.’
Cavallari’s production of The Nutcracker will open at His Majesty’s Theatre from September 12 to 27. Tickets are available now through www.bocsticketing.com.au for a night filled with sugar plum fairies and all things technologic.
