Usina da Dança students step on a São Paulo stage as Cia Cisne Negro's Nutcracker Angels

28/01/2020

A tradition for 36 years, Cisne Negro returned to present in December 2019 its renowned version of the Christmas classic The Nutcracker, under the artistic direction of Hulda Bittencourt. Once again, the show, presented from December 12 to 22, included the participation of 12 students from the Usina da Dança Project of the Oswaldo Ribeiro de Mendonça Institute - IORM, who were Angels in the show.

The presentations of the IORM angels took place in the morning and evening shows on December 18 and the evening of December 19. The Project's students were accompanied by Usina da Dança's artistic director, Valéria Aparecida Pazeto, by Lucia Helena Gomes de Castro, Marina de Andrade, Isabela Cristina Mastroscosso de Oliveira, Maria Julia Pintar, Thais de Souza Alves and Maria Fernanda Garcia.

The delegation from the Oswaldo Ribeiro de Mendonça Institute stayed in great style at the Transamerica Hotel. The costumes used on stage by the angels were donated by Cia. Cisne Negro de Dança to the IORM.

Big names

In addition to the permanent cast, dancers and performance actors are specially hired. The guest soloists are Marcelo Gomes, Brazilian, international ballet star; Alice Mariani, Italian, prima ballerina with the Dresden Semperoper Ballet, Germany; and the Brazilians Cícero Gomes, prima ballerina with the Theatro Municipal do Rio de Janeiro, and his partner Manuela Roçado (Rio de Janeiro).

With artistic direction by Hulda Bittencourt and Dany Bittencourt, the show relied on the collaboration of renowned rehearsers in the dance area, such as dancer and maitre d' Daniela Severian and Cisne Negro Cia de Dança's rehearser Patrícia Alquezar.

Traditional in the city of São Paulo, the show received in 2012 the State Governor's Award as Best Dance Show - popular preference. The Nutcracker had the collaboration of renowned rehearsers in the dance area, such as teacher Denise Siqueira (former ballerina and soloist of The Nutcracker) and rehearser and assistant director of Cisne Negro Cia de Dança, Patrícia Alquezar.

The ballet presented special circus effects and tissue acrobatics by the Circo Escola Picadeiro, considered one of the most respected circus schools in Brazil, created in 1983 by Wilson Moura Leite, who has in his curriculum former students acting in important companies abroad, some of them even in the Cirque Du Soleil.

In the lobby of the Theater, there was a presentation of guest choirs, performing Christmas music, one hour before the beginning of the shows, under the coordination of pianist Maria Inês Vasconcellos. The show featured makeup and visagism created by the Jacques Janine team, under the supervision of Chloé Gaya.

The Nutcracker

The creation of The Nutcracker was inspired by a French adaptation of an excerpt from Hoffmann's short story Nussknacker und Mauserkonig (Nutcracker and the King of the Mice). Tchaikovsky was enchanted by the sinister and fantastic colorings surrounding the story and composed the music for the ballet. The result is a work full of fantasy and romanticism.

Staged in two acts, the ballet tells the fantasy of Clara, a girl who gets many presents on Christmas Eve, but is especially charmed by one of them, a nutcracker doll. When everyone goes to bed, Clara goes into the living room to play with her new present, falls asleep, and enters the fantasy world - the toys come to life, dance, fight, travel to The Kingdom of Snows and The Kingdom of Sweets, where Clara and her prince are honored with dances typical of several countries and with a graceful grand pas-de-deux by the Sugar Fairy. Created in 1891 by Russian composer Pyotr Ilyich Tchaikovsky, Cisne Negro Cia de Dança's version is directed by Hulda Bittencourt and Dany Bittencourt.