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Nutcracker and the Importance of Diversity in the Arts

December 18, 2018 by 4dancers

Joffrey's Nutcracker
The Joffrey Ballet performs The Nutcracker. Photo by Cheryl Mann.

by Luis Gonzalez

The Joffrey Ballet’s version of The Nutcracker is set during the 1893 Chicago World’s Fair. The first act is set in December during the construction of the fair and before the grand opening. This setting includes immigrants from different ethnic backgrounds, low income families, and single mothers; people who are in unfavorable circumstances but work diligently to give themselves and their children a better future. Personally, this is my favorite part of the ballet because in terms of narrative, it’s the part with which I resonate the most. I also think it makes an important point to promote diversity in ballet and to give a new medium to a perspective that is often not included in classical ballet. The basic plot of the story still follows a parallel trajectory as the original, but important changes were made by the writer Brian Selznick which help make the traditionally opulent and arguably dated story resonate with the vibrant and culturally diverse city of Chicago.

My family came the United States from Colombia to give me and my siblings opportunities which might have been scarce in our own country. Latino’s are extremely family oriented and often form very strong and dependent bonds with family members. In my family we all lived within close proximity of each other and took every opportunity to celebrate that. Some of my favorite memories from growing up in Colombia are of long dining room tables where once every two weeks the entire family would gather at my grandmother’s house. Despite that, my parents still made the sacrifice of leaving their parents and friends behind for a better shot at their children’s dreams. I imagine the people in the first act of this ballet made similar sacrifices and experienced similar or even more complicated paradoxes in making those decisions.

I’ve danced six versions of The Nutcracker and every version had something different and special to offer. I remember my very first role was a party child. We were dressed in lavish Victorian clothes and I remember having a great time pretending to be someone else. I had just moved to the U.S. and, at my request, started dancing ballet. I didn’t speak English, and I didn’t fit in culturally, but I loved ballet and that was all that really mattered. I am grateful for every experience I’ve had with dance and for having dance in my life. At the time, dancing was the outlet I was granted to express myself and all of the difficulties that I experienced through trying to adjust to my new environment. The art form helped me through bullying in school, through figuring out my sexuality, through heartbreak…but think of how much more it could do if kids growing up today were dancing through stories to which they could relate.

This idea of diversity also extends to the impact that it has in ballets without a story. I personally know many dancers who left the art form altogether because of the frustration of not being able to see a body type, a skin color, or an ethnicity which resembled their own. Stories like this version of The Nutcracker make an effort to be inclusive and to show young kids that ballet is not only an artistic medium for people who look a certain way, but there are many prejudice notions and exclusive biases still in the ballet world which need to be addressed. Although ballet is an aesthetic art form in which the line that your body makes is an integral component of higher quality work, I also believe that you do not have to be born with the perfect conditions to learn how to make a beautiful line.

The Joffrey Ballet’s Nutcracker. Photo by Cheryl Mann.

As an older dancer, one starts to understand that there is room in every character for personal interpretation and that you can pull from personal experience to enhance character development. As a child however, that kind of abstract thought is not often attainable. I look at the kids now that are in the children’s cast of Nutcracker, some of them immigrants or children of immigrants, and I feel so happy that they are in a version where they can see themselves directly reflected in the narrative of the story. They can ask questions about the story and maybe learn some things about how their ancestors helped shape the building blocks of the United States. They may not realize now how it affects their idea of normalcy, or the perception the hold of themselves and what they are capable of in the world now, but eventually I think they will look back and be grateful for having been a part of an artistic venture which strived to include the experiences and the influence that immigrants have had in this country.

I have always believed that art was a very powerful thing, and as with all powerful things, it is a double-edged sword. The arts have been historically used through centuries for many reasons; to celebrate a moment of joy, to maintain appearances, exert power, or just to give a medium of expression to whoever needed it. It may sound silly to say, but in many ways the people in control of art organizations still have power over the trajectory of people’s lives (especially that of developing young minds) and they must understand how that responsibility could be used for the better. As it was in my case, ballet could be one of the best gifts that a person ever receives, but I have also seen it have very negative effects on people’s concepts of self-worth, mental health, and just generally feeling excluded from something that they love.

The reason I think it’s important for us as dancers to start conversations about topics like these is because just like children are the future of the world, we are the future of dance leadership. Someday dancers in companies today will be in management positions in different capacities. Whether it’s the directorship of a company, a ballet master position, a choreographer, a teacher, or a school owner, there will be situations where we will have agency over situations that may seem small at the time. In those moments I think it will be important for us to remember how the arts have shaped our lives, and how different they might have been if we had not had them, as well as how negatively they have affected other people. Being mindful of biases and treating people with equity are integral parts of creating a more cohesive and progressive reality. Implementing these principles towards the leadership of the future can create an environment for people that capitalizes on the increase of gradience in the colors and tell stories both on and off the stage that unite us instead of divide us.


Mr. Gonzalez, is originally from Bogota, Colombia, where he grew up before moving to Atlanta, Georgia. His training came primarily from the continued direction of Maniya Barredo, former prima ballerina of Atlanta Ballet, and current director of Metropolitan Ballet Theatre. Mr. Gonzalez has received the Star Student award at Regional Dance America’s SERBA, been awarded 3rd place at the Regional Youth American Grand Prix competition in 2008, given first place pas de deux at the American Ballet Competition in 2013, and selected to compete as the only representative of Colombia in the 2014 Jackson International Ballet Competition.


Luis Eduardo Gonzalez
Joffrey’s Luis Eduardo Gonzalez, Photo by Cheryl Mann

Mr. Gonzalez began his professional career with The Houston Ballet II, where he had the opportunity to dance works by Stanton Welch, among other renowned choreographers, as well as tour both nationally and internationally. At 18, he joined Orlando Ballet where he danced for three years and performed roles such as the Jester in Swan Lake, Peter in Peter and the Wolf, Ghoul’s trio in Vampire’s Ball, Franz’s friend in Coppelia, and Cavalier in the Sugar Plum Pas de deux in The Nutcracker.

Filed Under: 4dancers Tagged With: Brian Selznick, Cheryl Mann, Chicago World's Fair, christopher Wheeldon, classical ballet, Diversity, Diversity in Ballet, Diversity in the Arts, Joffrey's Nutcracker, the joffrey ballet, the nutcracker

Swan Lake – Still Relevant Today

October 17, 2018 by 4dancers

Joffrey’s Victoria Jaiani and Dylan Gutierrez perform Christopher Wheeldon’s Swan Lake. Photo by Cheryl Mann.

by Luis Eduardo Gonzalez

Swan Lake is one of the most loved and mesmerizing classical ballets of all time. The ballet was composed in 1875 and was Tchaikovsky’s first. It debuted in 1877 at the Bolshoi Theatre and was revamped in 1895, by Marius Petipa and Lev Ivanov in St Petersburg. Over 100 years later it remains a favorite with ballet companies regularly performing it throughout the world. So, what is it that makes a piece of art stand the test of time the way that this ballet has done? Why is it important for a company like Joffrey whose mission statement boasts “commitment to excellence and innovation” be presenting a ballet about rich guy falling in love with a girl trapped in a bird’s body? The truth is if you take the story literally it doesn’t make very much sense at all, but if one takes a moment to appreciate the underlying themes of this story, it’s easy to see just how relevant and maybe even necessary the message behind this story really is right now.

To start, the story has been considerably reimagined by Christopher Wheeldon. Set in the studios of the Paris Opera Ballet, a company dancer falls in love with his beautiful partner, a star ballerina who is being pursued by an arts patron with bad intentions. All of the swan acts may or may not happen in the lead dancer’s very capable imagination. I think what this approach does is highlight the fact that this story is not actually about a man falling for a bird, but actually about a woman trapped in unfavorable circumstances. Traditionally, Odette is trapped in a narrative where she either has to get this prince to to fall in love with her or be forced to live the rest of her life a slave to an evil sorcerer. She is in a situation that leaves her no agency over the trajectory of her life, because those choices are being made for her by men that don’t give a second thought to what she wants. At the end of the ballet Odette disappears between two diagonals of swans. What happens to her beyond that is left to the audience’s imagination, but what is certain is that she ended up away from the circumstances which once seemed to bind her fate.

The Joffrey Ballet performing Christopher Wheeldon’s Swan Lake. Photo by Cheryl Mann.

We are living in a time where people all over the world are demanding change. Like Odette, people are beginning to realize that being deprived of choice in one way or another or being treated with less respect than any individual deserves is no longer acceptable. We see examples in the news every day, and several specifically in the ballet/dance world. We see women being treated like objects, dancers struggling with mental health because of abuse by those that think being in leadership positions gives them the power to treat them like punching bags on which to thrust their own insecurities. The message that Swan Lake can provide to today’s social, professional, and even political climate is that no matter how rigid and unchangeable a situation may seem, or how powerless one may feel there is always room for choice, and there is always agency over the trajectory of our own lives, over our own dancing, over our own decisions.

This ballet has beautiful music, beautiful sets, costumes, choreography, and dancing. Dancing by artists who, even in the confines of the choreography, can still find room to make nuanced choices within the steps. This allows us to use our voices to layer the work that much further by using the experiences we accumulate through the lives we lead and gives us agency over what each performance is going to say. It’s up to us as performers to use every performance to really speak, regardless of what role we’re performing. The responsibility to breathe life into these venerable classics, just like the responsibility to use our voices to better the world, lies completely on the artists and people of our generation.

It is often said that classics are losing their relevance because the character narratives in those ballets are antiquated and no longer reflect anything that our current world can relate to, but this view lacks perspective. It doesn’t take much effort to see that all over the world there are people whose voices are silenced, people who struggle and suffer because of circumstances out of their control, or people who have at one point experienced a broken heart. The ballets may have been created hundreds of years ago, but we that still perform them they are very much living in the present, living in the world, and experiencing all its current complexities. As for Siegfried, at the end of the ballet he wakes from his “dream,” and sees that this beautiful creature that was suffering through injustice, is a real woman and is in a very real way still being taken advantage of. The ballet ends with him having this new-found perspective that he didn’t have prior to his imaginative moment, and in a way is a call to action for him as well as the audience to go out and do something about it.


See Christopher Wheeldon’s version of Swan Lake for yourself! Joffrey’s performance run opens tonight. Tickets are available here – and it runs through October 28th.


Luis Eduardo Gonzalez
Joffrey’s Luis Eduardo Gonzalez, Photo by Cheryl Mann

Contributor Luis Eduardo Gonzalez joined The Joffrey Ballet in July 2015.

Mr. Gonzalez, is originally from Bogota, Colombia, where he grew up before moving to Atlanta, Georgia. His training came primarily from the continued direction of Maniya Barredo, former prima ballerina of Atlanta Ballet, and current director of Metropolitan Ballet Theatre. Mr. Gonzalez has received the Star Student award at Regional Dance America’s SERBA, been awarded 3rd place at the Regional Youth American Grand Prix competition in 2008, given first place pas de deux at the American Ballet Competition in 2013, and selected to compete as the only representative of Colombia in the 2014 Jackson International Ballet Competition.

Mr. Gonzalez began his professional career with The Houston Ballet II, where he had the opportunity to dance works by Stanton Welch, among other renowned choreographers, as well as tour both nationally and internationally. At 18, he joined Orlando Ballet where he danced for three years and performed roles such as the Jester in Swan Lake, Peter in Peter and the Wolf, Ghoul’s trio in Vampire’s Ball, Franz’s friend in Coppelia, and Cavalier in the Sugar Plum Pas de deux in The Nutcracker.

Filed Under: 4dancers Tagged With: Cheryl Mann, christopher Wheeldon, Jofrrey, Luis Eduardo Gonzalez, odette, odile, siegfried, Story Ballets, swan lake, the joffrey ballet

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