NYCB Vol. 13 No. 4 & 5 - Nutcracker

Counting down 52 NYCB Nutcrackers this year with stories from NYCB dancers past and present! Continuing from Maria Calegari’s stories yesterday, we’ll hear from her husband, Bart Cook, who was in the company from 1971-1993:

“I was lucky to dance for a time with Ballet West in my hometown of Salt Lake City before coming to New York. And as you may know, then-director Willam Christensen had created the first American Nutcracker in 1944 for San Francisco Ballet. He then brought it to Salt Lake City where it is still performed today at Ballet West. I was in the Ballet West Nutcracker’s Trepak [1], with Tracy Bennet and Bruce Caldwell in 1969.”

Photo by Martha Swope, 1977

"Once I got into New York City Ballet 1971, I did the usual. Parent, Mouse, Spanish lead [2], Candy Cane lead. I really wanted to do the Cavalier and asked Mr. Balanchine about it. His answer, ‘No dear, you don't need to do this, go on vacation.’ I was already really busy with Jerry Robbins and doing Mr. B's neo-classic roles like Agon and 4 Ts."

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“Later on when I was a balletmaster I wasn't in the Nutcracker until about 1990 when I started doing Herr Drosselmeir. I always enjoyed the acting roles like in Robbins’ ‘The Concert’ and Dr. Coppelius in ‘Coppélia’. In the summer of 1992, I got a call. ‘We'd like you to do Drosselmeir in the filming of the Nutcracker movie with Macaulay Culkin!’

Bart and Jessica Lynne-Cohen, 1992.

“Apparently Dustin Hoffman, who was their first choice, was unavailable. I was thrilled and enjoyed the filming with Emile Ardolino as the director very much. He had worked with Mr. Balanchine and Merill Brockway on the ‘Dance in America’ series so I was quite familiar with him and his work. In the cast was Macaulay Culkin and Jessica Lynne-Cohen both of whom had attended SAB. Rouben Ter-Arutunian, the costume set designer, was also on hand and gave me a gift of the most amazing Venetian mask-like pin to place on my black cravat,  almost like from the ballet Pulchinella. 

“Of course I tried to emulate Mr. Balanchine's wishes for the role as much as possible and had watched the amazing Shaun O'Brien in it forever!”