NYCB Vol. 13. No. 32, 33, 34, 35 - Nutcracker

Counting down 50 NYCB Nutcrackers this year with stories from NYCB dancers past and present! Today we hear from Suzanne Farrell, who was danced in the company from 1961 to 1969 and 1975 to 1989:

We begin with entries from her childhood diary:

“DECEMBER 9

You'll never guess what happened! I was chosen for a part in The Nutcracker. I will be an angel with seven other girls. We don't do anything but stand, but I'm thrilled all the same... 

“DECEMBER 15

This evening at 5:30 p.M. was our first rehearsal for angels. It wasn't on stage, though. I thought the rehearsal would be just us eight, but everyone was there. The first person I saw was Diana Adams. Then Mr. B and then Jacques d'Am-boise. I push in the throne. I'm enjoying this so much.

“DECEMBER 16

At 5:00 p.m. we had a rehearsal on stage. I pushed in the throne and then two girls brought on the table which Lucy and I then hooked on. Mr. B came up and took my hand. He asked me my name and gave me some directions to do in regards to my "huge" part. Tonight at 8:30 p.M. was the first performance. Diana and Jacques did it. They were perfect. I'm just in another world now.

“Today the angels in The Nutcracker are performed by the tiniest girls in the School, but in 1960 they were the biggest, thus my part. Before pushing on the throne, we sailed onstage in our angel gowns with halo hats and pretended to play little gold musical instruments. It was during the assembling of the throne for Marie and the prince to sit on that Mr. B had stopped the whole rehearsal and come over to me. He held my hand and asked, ‘What's your name, dear?’ ‘Suzanne Ficker.’

‘Well, dear, when they bring on the table, you have to hook it to the throne. See this little hole, well, that's where you hook it.’ I felt as if I were ten years old and would have swooned had I not had such an important task to execute. I guessed that out to all he angels he must have chosen me and thought, ‘She looks responsible, let her hook it in.’ I developed an enormous detailed drama in my mind about our exchange and the reasons for it. After that I could never relax until I had hooked the throne.

"We stood onstage for the remainder of the act watching all the various divertissements. I learned everything, including the Sugar Plum's pas de deux and the Dewdrop's dance and secretly planned and hoped that if anyone in the whole second act was injured I could save the day and dance their part, any part."

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“It was my first attempt at the sparkling, spinning, and highflying Dewdrop in The Nutcracker and it went well... as far as it went. I was a big jumper in those days and while landing from a grand jeté split leap I felt something pull underneath my left foot, the horse-kicked foot. I hobbled through the finale of the ballet just before it had time to swell and found myself the next morning at the doctor’s office.

“It was not serious, just a sprain, but it needed time to heal, and the doctor prescribed huge, thick, lace-up, flat-heeled, black orthopedic shoes until it did. I was horrified. Here I was, all of eighteen years old, just beginning to appreciate the results of adolescent changes and the delights of dressing up, and I had to wear old women’s shoes! Humiliated, I stayed home as much as possible, praying desperately for my ligaments to mend.”

Photos by Fred Fehl 1963-7

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Photo by Martha Swope.

“Some time later Mr. B again used me to change another arabesque in another well-established ballet and that change has become, like the Bizet penché, a mystery of physical execution. During one of the most climactic moments of the pas de deux between the Sugar Plum Fairy and her cavalier in The Nutcracker he declared, uncharacteristically, that he wanted to try what could only be called a visual trick.

“He arranged for a small, thin metal slide, pulled by wires, to be cranked invisibly across the stage and, instead of doing the usual choreography, I was to step onto the slide on pointe, in arabesque, holding my partner’s hand while two stagehands, in opposite wings, pulled the wire and me across the stage. The effect was magical, and to this day audiences are thrilled and baffled by the seemingly impossible feat. Mr. B was equally thrilled with his optical illusion, and I was thrilled to be his guinea pig.”

[In an unrelated chapter, years later]

“…That evening I danced the Sugar Plum Fairy in The Nutcracker and felt grateful for the peace and freedom I had onstage. By now, they didn’t exist anywhere else in my life.”

(top and bottom left) Photos by Herbert Migdoll

(top and bottom right) Photos by Martha Swope

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Suzanne and Peter Martins. Photo by Martha Swope.

“The Nutcracker was the first ballet [Peter and I] had danced together in New York in 1967, [swipe for photos comparing their first and final performances together] and now, on December 6 [1983], we danced it for the last time. It was the 1,000th performance of Balanchine’s magical Christmas ballet, Peter’s and my last official dance together with the company, and a very emotional evening.

“In my dressing room I received a note and a little turquoise box from my retiring partner.

“My Dear Suzanne,

There’s very little to say at this point, other than feeling a lot.

I’m not quite sure what I feel (shaky though)— and it’s hard to try and express!! However, you gave me the most fulfilling thing one could ask for: not to be alone in one’s career. For that I’m always grateful. And I know our friendship will carry us much further in the future!! This little thing is just a token for your dressing room table— because you will dance more—and it has turquoise which of course I love. So, tonight—just relax—try and enjoy-I’ll do it all (at least I’ll try) and let’s get this thing over with.

Much, much love,

Peter

“Part of me was retiring too, and again, in desperation, it flashed through my mind that I didn’t want to dance anymore either. During the pas de deux that evening I looked down and saw my hand shaking in Peter’s; it had never done that before. It was a year of final curtains. But my own hadn’t come down quite yet, although I had already received the first signs that it would. But I refused to recognize them.”

Photos by Martha Swope

The stories in this post are quoted from “Holding on to the Air” by Suzanne Farrell.