The Harlem Nutcracker. - BAM Opera House, New York, New York - dance reviews

Dance Magazine, March, 1997 by Roslyn Sulcas

In Donald Byrd's The Harlem Nutcracker, Clara is a grandmother and Drosselmeier a cartoon-scary figure of Death; the Sugar Plum Fairy is "Sugar Rum Cherry"; and the genteel Europeans of E.T.A. Hoffmann's story are transformed into hip guests at a Harlem mansion. Reworking The Nutcracker is a favorite choreographic undertaking, but few versions have succeeded as well as Byrd's, presented as part of the Brooklyn Academy of Music's Next Wave Festival. Byrd manages to retain the story's underpinnings of fantasy, humor, and emotion, while substituting a brilliantly inventive and entertaining update of its content.

Byrd's first inspiration was to think of using the Duke Ellington/Billy Strayhorn version of Tchaikovsky's score (adapted and augmented by David Berger). His second was to give pertinent social context to a choreographic mix of ballet, funk, contemporary, and jazz dance. Act I begins with the traditional Christmas party: Clara's grandchildren do a crackerjack hip-hop dance; a gospel choir (the Lafayette Inspirational Ensemble) sings; a daughter-in-law drinks too much punch. Meanwhile, Clara (touchingly portrayed by Eleanor McCoy) thinks sadly of her recently deceased husband, only to have him reappear in the guise of a nutcracker that he once gave her, defending her from a Death who wears platform shoes.

Revealing his identity, her spouse (the gorgeous Gus Solomons jr) whisks Clara in a limo to Act lI's Club Sweets, a Harlem nightclub gorgeously lit in hot pinks, guarded by turquoise-clad, double-jointed doormen, and populated by couples in slinky satin dresses and tuxedos (not to mention showgirls like they used to make 'em). The entire company gives a wonderful performance in a superbly costumed (by Gabriel Berry) series of dances--the Peanut Brittle Brigade, the Volga Vouty, Chinoiserie (featuring a sexy, virtuosic Elizabeth Parkinson), Arabesque Cookie (an adagio couple and a hilarious bodybuilder sequence, involving sequined g-strings)--that culminate in a marvelous number featuring champagne-glass tutus.

Byrd gives way to reality at the end. Death reappears to claim Clara, but, surrounded by her family in her beloved home, she goes willingly to rejoin her husband. Surprisingly, this ending is neither mawkish nor flat. Clara's psychic separation from the vibrant life of her family is made clear from the beginning, and a sense of that family's unity and continuity is already established: the African American community that has nourished her will clearly endure.