‘The Hip Hop Nutcracker’: Fun-filled

New Jersey Performing Arts Center, Newark, NJ.
December 17, 2022.

In its tenth season, the Emmy Award-winning The Hip Hop Nutcracker stuffed a Saturday night in Newark with wintery, spirited delight. Guest MC and considered one of hip hop’s founding fathers, Kurtis Blow, begins the evening off with a sing-along phase that ignites the group –– the power is extra like a stadium than a theater. Donning a graffitied white go well with and bedazzled bow tie, he talks a few particular type of love that may defeat evil. There’s a DJ scratching data downstage left as Blow guides us via the historical past of hip hop. He pays tribute to Twitch, who just lately misplaced his life to suicide, dedicating the present and the remainder of the season to his reminiscence.

A violinist enters and begins taking part in a virtuosic solo in opposition to a projected nighttime backdrop. A beat is available in behind the violin and dancers quickly comply with. Duets impressed by secret handshakes and inventive scarf-ography fill the stage –– this should be the celebration scene. The choreography includes a combination of advanced and easy motion that’s tastefully understated and musical. The performers’ facial expressions really feel real, they usually all put on black, white and grey road garments.

Soon, Drosselmeyer, danced by Lisa “L boogie” Bauford, pops her method into the house, pulling a pocket watch from her cape. A breaker –– the Harlequin doll? –– performs an unbelievable head spin collection earlier than the Nutcracker enters with a purchasing cart. Clara, danced by Ann-Sylvia Clark, enters quickly after, carrying a boombox. She tries to show him methods to dance, and he will get very excited. When she touches him, he does the identical excited dance and the viewers laughs.

It begins “snowing” and a dramatic duet with krump and whacking influences is danced by Clara’s mother and father. They are in a struggle. The dad, Bryan Longchamp, is a standout performer all through the piece.

Soon, it’s time for the rats to put their claims. The Christmas tree grows within the backdrop and the rats carry out an brisk breaking part. The Nutcracker involves rescue Clara from the rats with an enormous knee slide. When he fails, Drosselmeyer revives him. New pink sneakers fall down from the ceiling, and the Nutcracker eagerly places them on. The troopers enter, and led by the Nutcracker they defeat the rats as soon as and for all.

Clara and the Nutcracker take part a romantic duet, and the music builds because the clump of “snowflakes” ripple in good sequence. A macro view of snowflakes falls within the backdrop, and it’s clear to see how their distinctive shapes influenced the choreography. A blizzard builds and snow falls on stage, marking the tip of the primary act. 

Act II begins with the violinist taking part in beneath the illuminated streetlight accompanied by the DJ within the different downstage nook. Clara and the Nutcracker quickly go on a subway trip simulated by the projection that takes them years again in time. Drosselmeyer as soon as once more exhibits her pocket watch because the solid reenters in vibrant costumes. We arrive “back in the day,” within the Land of Sweets. As a medley of solos, duets and group work (together with a bonbons-inspired quartet) dances throughout the stage, the years construct again up. The present concludes in a firework finale with a full group associate part and the violinist marching consistent with the dynamic dancers.

The Hip Hop Nutcracker is undeniably a worthwhile tackle the age previous ballet. Its expert dancers, numerous solid and fun-filled choreography come collectively to retell a basic story from an city, New York City model perspective.