The season of The Nutcracker is upon us again, but if the classic is getting a little redundant, Ballet Jörgen Canada offers a surprising adaptation of the tale.
Ballet Jörgen’s original Nutcracker is set in a rural 1912 Ontario landscape. Klara and her loyal wooden friend embark together on a journey through the forest, which is filled with beavers, raccoons, loons, and other creatures identified with Canada.
“The base is very traditional, it’s just that we have changed the whole context and we’re telling a Canadian story,” said Bengt Jörgen, founder and artistic director of Ballet Jörgen Canada.
To make the story familiar to local audiences, the production incorporated winter scenes by the Group of Seven, Canada’s famed landscape painters. Paintings by Tom Thomson, Franklin Carmichael and Lionel L. Fitzgerald make up the show’s backdrops.
“It was such a natural fit to use them because the Group of Seven heralded a nationalistic sense of Canada as a country,” said Jörgen.
Engaging With Communities Across Canada
The inspiration for a Canadian Nutcracker came from the many regions Ballet Jörgen works with. The company has reached over 200 Canadian communities that range from small towns like Liverpool, Nova Scotia, to large metropolises such as Ottawa and Toronto.
It is one of the ballet company’s aims to work with different schools and enable students from any institution audition for its productions. In 2008, The Group of Seven Nutcracker came to the stage to connect with local communities by telling a story relevant to Canada.
