NYCB Vol. 13 No. 9 - Nutcracker

Photo by Steve Caras

[9/52] Counting down 52 NYCB Nutcrackers this year with stories from NYCB dancers past and present! Today we hear from Diana White, who was in the company from 1977-1997:

“The first time I saw the Balanchine Nutcracker was on our black and white TV when I was about 8. It was a re-run of the film where Mr. B was Drosselmeyer, Diana Adams was the Sugarplum Fairy, and Allegra was the Dewdrop. I didn’t care much about it because I only wanted to be Margot Fonteyn as Juliet, opposite Rudolf Nureyev after seeing them live with the Royal Ballet.

“Around that time, my ballet teacher thought I was talented, so I went to audition for Ruth Page’s big Nutcracker production in Chicago, but I didn’t get in. I tried again the next year, and I still didn’t get in. When I was 10, I auditioned for NYCB Midsummer’s and I got in. After that, it was NYCB or bust.

“When I was 14, I auditioned for Maria Tallchief when she became the director of the ballet of the Lyric Opera of Chicago. I got in. I was an ‘apprentice’, which wasn’t really a thing back then. She taught class every day in a tiny studio with a rickety wooden floor. She taught us the Sugar Plum Fairy variation as it had been created for her. I will never, ever forget it.

Photo by Martha Swope

“Fast forward to NYCB: I was an apprentice, about to perform Waltz of the Flowers for the first time. I had learned one of the “wall flowers” Tall dancers in the back. At that stage rehearsal, Mr B told the “rehearsal director”, aka RD, to put me in the front. I learned the new role and sprained my ankle in the sauts de basque section in that rehearsal, but I just ignored it and went on anyway. I will never forget running on stage for the first time in Waltz of the Flowers and taking the first pose. Literally, like yesterday. A feeling of rapture.

“I went on to dance at NYCB: Parents, Snow, Flowers ‘demis’, Arabian, Spanish principal, Frau Stahlbaum, (that violin solo!) and as a guest artist, Dewdrop at Ohman Ballet and countless Sugar Plum gigs all over he US, coached generously by Suzanne Farrell, and with fabulous partners. 

“As much as I love the Nutcracker, I hope audiences don’t think that once they’ve seen it, they have seen BALLET. The Nutcracker is only the tip of the iceberg!”