RHowarth Posted December 18, 2017 Share Posted December 18, 2017 Hi, Not sure whether this should be in 'Doing Dance' or one of the other forums, but... I'm intrigued to know which school year groups dance which roles in The Nutcracker. I'm particularly interested in the Royal Ballet School and the Royal Ballet's production of the ballet, but am also interested in other companies and productions (particularly in the US). I believe that first and second years dance party guests and mice. What about years 9, 10 and 11? Do they still appear? Then I guess upper school girls are drafted into the corps de ballet for snowflakes. I used to be under the impression that the 'angels' were danced by upper school girls, but either that was wrong, or it's changed, as I recently saw a photograph of Demelza Parish in the role. Thank you, Rebecca Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
RuthE Posted December 19, 2017 Share Posted December 19, 2017 My sister asked this last night! I believe the angels are indeed danced by upper school girls, but perhaps the "lead" angel is cast from the corps. The other thing I was wondering is whether the mice are all boys? If so, given that the soldiers are also boys, surely that means that there are a lot of boy roles for the lower years of White Lodge and not actually that many girl roles? I figured that the little dolls who come to life in the transformation scene might be students of the age group in between. 1 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Pointetoes Posted December 19, 2017 Share Posted December 19, 2017 This year the angels are first year upper school and the snowflakes are usually first year Royal Ballet. The party girls and boys are Year 8 WL. The gingerbread are yr7 White lodge and when I remember the rest I will tell you. 2 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
RHowarth Posted December 19, 2017 Author Share Posted December 19, 2017 1 hour ago, RuthE said: My sister asked this last night! Spooky! Great minds and all that... Thanks for the response. 1 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
hfbrew Posted December 19, 2017 Share Posted December 19, 2017 Mice are all girls. My ds was a "tall" soldier, he and some of his friends very nearly got a Christmas off when in year 9 on account of their height. Years 10 and 11 not involved, well certainly not during our time. 3 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
RuthE Posted December 19, 2017 Share Posted December 19, 2017 Makes perfect sense now I know the mice are girls, in terms of the casting proportions... Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
RuthE Posted December 19, 2017 Share Posted December 19, 2017 Do we know if the leading angel (the one who appears at the beginning and the end) is a role for a company member or a student? I know the one who drives the sleigh is a student because I remember it being featured on some behind-the-scenes footage - either that documentary last year or an online feature. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Katniss Posted December 19, 2017 Share Posted December 19, 2017 Hi my DD is at WL in the Nutcracker with Royal Ballet right now .Yr 7 girls are gingerbread , naughty children and small mice: yr 8 girls are party children and tall mice ( sometimes just a mouse if you are tall).Year 9 girls are tall mice and the tallest girl might play miss Gertrude . The boys are soldiers with opportunities to play the rabbit drummer sentry and Fritz. The yr 8 boys play party children too. A lot of casting depends on costumes and height & whose available because of injury and illness - sometimes yr9 will play a party child for example . There is a huge variation in height in each year so it’s a case of best fit for the parts. 3 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
capybara Posted December 19, 2017 Share Posted December 19, 2017 I have been struck, this year in particular, by the incredibly long and slender legs of some of the mice. So I am surprised to read that they are all girls. I think that there are some Upper School students in the snowflakes. Last year's documentary implied that they are covers but they actually seem to get quite a few opportunities to be 'on'. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
RuthE Posted December 19, 2017 Share Posted December 19, 2017 Yes, I recall from that documentary that there were 2nd/3rd year students filling gaps in the corps for both Snowflakes and Flowers. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Katniss Posted December 19, 2017 Share Posted December 19, 2017 Ooh thank you for the compliment regarding the girls as mice as my dd is one of them . Yes most of them have incredibly long legs ... just need to build up their arms to lift ‘dead’ mouse king off stage without dropping him...😆 3 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
allthebest2all Posted December 19, 2017 Share Posted December 19, 2017 (edited) This year 6 of the angels are danced by second year US girls. The other two and the cover are first year upper school. The lead angel is from the company. There are third year girls in snowflakes and covering flowers and two second year girls are on standby for snowflakes. WL is as said above. Edited December 19, 2017 by allthebest2all Spelling 2 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
RobR Posted December 19, 2017 Share Posted December 19, 2017 The angel who drives the sledge/sleigh must hold a full drivers licence and the snowflakes include US students, artists, first artists and soloists. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
allthebest2all Posted December 20, 2017 Share Posted December 20, 2017 Really with the driving licence??! 🤣 that’s a great bit of trivia to know I shall remember that 😀 Yes corps made up of company dancers of course I was just referring to what the students did as that was the question of the topic. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
alison Posted December 22, 2017 Share Posted December 22, 2017 On 19/12/2017 at 11:40, RuthE said: Do we know if the leading angel (the one who appears at the beginning and the end) is a role for a company member or a student? In the hard-copy Evening Standard review there was a photo of the lead angel, and she was credited as Leticia Dias. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
LinMM Posted December 22, 2017 Share Posted December 22, 2017 Well that's a company member then! Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
allthebest2all Posted December 31, 2017 Share Posted December 31, 2017 Just to add I watched the other day and they are now using the angel who drives the sleigh (a student) at the end of the Ballet too. But the Angel in the party scene is a company member. 1 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Wigglybunny Posted January 3, 2018 Share Posted January 3, 2018 Y7 and 8 boys also play the paiges at the start of the second act and a few y7 boys and girls are ‘naughty children’ right at the start. DS had his last night as a ‘tall soldier’ last night. Has been a fantastic experience. 2 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
RuthE Posted January 4, 2018 Share Posted January 4, 2018 (edited) On 19/12/2017 at 11:45, cupcake said: Hi my DD is at WL in the Nutcracker with Royal Ballet right now .Yr 7 girls are gingerbread , naughty children and small mice: yr 8 girls are party children and tall mice ( sometimes just a mouse if you are tall).Year 9 girls are tall mice and the tallest girl might play miss Gertrude . The boys are soldiers with opportunities to play the rabbit drummer sentry and Fritz. The yr 8 boys play party children too. A lot of casting depends on costumes and height & whose available because of injury and illness - sometimes yr9 will play a party child for example . There is a huge variation in height in each year so it’s a case of best fit for the parts. Just to ask for clarity on a couple more things if anyone knows... Miss Gertrude? I'd never heard a reference to this character until cupcake's post above, nor noticed a character who could fit that description, but having been to a couple of recent performances I now assume this is the character in the grey bonnet who is downstairs in the house where the Nutcracker is asleep upstairs, and ends up shepherding the "gingerbreads" upstairs in the house while the battle is raging. But who is she/what is her significance? Gingerbreads? I'm aware now that these are what I referred to in my earlier post here as the "little dolls", but where do they come from and what is their significance? Before they come to life in the transformation scene, are they on stage as props? Edited January 4, 2018 by RuthE Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
bangorballetboy Posted January 4, 2018 Share Posted January 4, 2018 2 minutes ago, RuthE said: Just to ask for clarity on a couple more things if anyone knows... Miss Gertrude? I'd never heard a reference to this character until cupcake's post above, nor noticed a character who could fit that description, but having been to a couple of recent performances I now assume this is the character in the grey bonnet who is downstairs in the house where the Nutcracker is asleep upstairs, and ends up shepherding the "gingerbreads" upstairs in the house while the battle is raging. But who is she/what is her significance? Gingerbreads? I'm aware now that these are what I referred to in my earlier post here as the "little dolls", but where do they come from and what is their significance? Before they come to life in the transformation scene, are they on stage as props? Miss Gertrude is the doll that Clara is given as a present (in the original ETA Hoffman story, it's Marie's oldest doll). The "gingerbreads" arrive at the party with St. Nicholas, and then go on to be the characters in the diverts. 1 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
RuthE Posted January 4, 2018 Share Posted January 4, 2018 I thought the characters that arrive with St Nicholas were all adult-sized? Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
bangorballetboy Posted January 4, 2018 Share Posted January 4, 2018 6 minutes ago, RuthE said: I thought the characters that arrive with St Nicholas were all adult-sized? They are "largish child" size... 1 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
RuthE Posted January 4, 2018 Share Posted January 4, 2018 So they... don't change size when transformed? Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
baby steps Posted January 4, 2018 Share Posted January 4, 2018 I recently received an old vhs video that a friend thought I would find interesting. I think it was from a programme called "The House" and featured The Nutcracker Ballet during rehearsal and performance. I think the date was around 1999 and Anthony Dowell was auditioning the children at White Lodge. The interesting thing was the part of Clara was played by a child at the start of the show. I really enjoyed seeing the part played by a child and wondered when, and why the decision was made to change it to an adult role?. I know a lot of International companies use a child Clara/Masha and was just interested to know the reason it changed. Can anyone help? Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Flit and float Posted January 4, 2018 Share Posted January 4, 2018 I loved The House! I always hope it'll turn up on YouTube....you'd never get something like that now! The Nutcracker auditions were fascinating - one of the girls in the running for Clara didn't get it because she was too good & "mature" a dancer! And now it's an adult! 2 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Nicola H Posted January 4, 2018 Share Posted January 4, 2018 21 minutes ago, Flit and float said: I loved The House! I always hope it'll turn up on YouTube....you'd never get something like that now! The Nutcracker auditions were fascinating - one of the girls in the running for Clara didn't get it because she was too good & "mature" a dancer! And now it's an adult! Standards and expectations change... look at the 'Ballet Evolved' series on the ROH YT channel ... Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
drdance Posted January 4, 2018 Share Posted January 4, 2018 On a tangent - the BRB production is different, and the childrens' roles are different too (this may reflect the lack of a nearby school at the time of the creation of the production by Sir Peter Wright). All the youngsters are JA age, I believe, the party children don't dance as much as in the Royal production (probably due to their youth) but they still get to be mice and soldiers. In the recent Albert Hall production I believe Elmhurst and RB upper school students danced as snowflakes and flowers too. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
RHowarth Posted January 5, 2018 Author Share Posted January 5, 2018 21 hours ago, Flit and float said: I loved The House! I always hope it'll turn up on YouTube....you'd never get something like that now! The Nutcracker auditions were fascinating - one of the girls in the running for Clara didn't get it because she was too good & "mature" a dancer! And now it's an adult! I have the accompanying book but was too young for the TV series and for the last fifteen years or so have been desperate to see it! 1 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Wigglybunny Posted January 5, 2018 Share Posted January 5, 2018 On 04/01/2018 at 09:59, bangorballetboy said: They are "largish child" size... The characters who arrive with St Nick in the RB London production are played by members of the company and are the same once they return during the transformation. But the gingerbreads (or dolls) are definitely RBS children and represent the dances in the second half. 1 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Wigglybunny Posted January 5, 2018 Share Posted January 5, 2018 20 hours ago, drdance said: On a tangent - the BRB production is different, and the childrens' roles are different too (this may reflect the lack of a nearby school at the time of the creation of the production by Sir Peter Wright). All the youngsters are JA age, I believe, the party children don't dance as much as in the Royal production (probably due to their youth) but they still get to be mice and soldiers. In the recent Albert Hall production I believe Elmhurst and RB upper school students danced as snowflakes and flowers too. The BRB production is very different for the kids. They choose from the RBS JAs by watching one of the first classes in sept and also audition at Elmhurst. They usually choose very small and young looking children and they are only in the party scene. From a personal perspective, DS was a b’ham JA and right from y4 he was told by his teacher not to get his hopes up, as he was too tall, even back then. We were told ‘if the costumes don’t fit, you can’t be in it!’ He never got cast and was philosophical about it, but secretly a bit gutted. Then he watched the nutcracker documentary at Christmas last year before auditioning for WL and realised that almost all the Y7,8&9 WL children get to be in the London production. I am sure that realisation made him even more determined to get a place and made up his mind that’s what he wanted. He’s just finished his first term at WL and his first nutcracker run at ROH and loved every minute. 9 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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