What’s old becomes new again in ‘The Hard Nut’ at the Brooklyn Academy of Music

How can “The Nutcracker,” the beloved ballet performed all over the world every holiday season, be made new again?

For one Brooklyn dance company, it’s by returning to what’s old.

“The Hard Nut” at Mark Morris Dance Group isn’t taking its cues from “George Balanchine’s The Nutcracker,” or even from the original 1894 ballet. It’s inspired mostly by the 1816 short story that started it all, “The Nutcracker and the Mouse King,” by E.T.A. Hoffman.

“The Hard Nut” is set to Pyotr Tchaikovsky’s original “Nutcracker” score, but in many ways, its similarities to other productions of the show end there. Choreographed by Mark Morris himself, the show takes place in the 1970s, with an aesthetic inspired by the comic book artist Charles Burns.

The production has its own unique aesthetic and story. Photo courtesy of Nan Melville

At a rehearsal a week before its Dec. 12 opening at BAM, the music was familiar to any casual “Nutcracker” fan, but the dancing was completely different.

“Within this production, there’s a lot of ballet vocabulary, but strictly ballet dancers wouldn’t be able to perform the choreography of what this is,” said Elisa Clark, a Mark Morris company member and rehearsal director for “The Hard Nut.”

Clark is also one of 32 dancers in the show. She performed her first “Hard Nut” in 2005, and was a full-time dancer with the Mark Morris Dance Group until 2011. As a result, she’s well-acquainted with dozens of different roles and all the show’s intricacies.

“The Hard Nut” is fresh and funny, full of 70s references and callbacks to the original short story. For example, Clark said, most “Nutcracker” productions only feature protagonist Marie (known sometimes as Clara) and her brother Fritz — cutting out their third sibling, Louise, altogether.

Elisa Clark oversees a rehearsal of ‘The Hard Nut.’ Photo courtesy of Mark Morris Dance Group

But Louise is there on stage in “Hard Nut,” and in an Act II scene inspired by “ The Story of the Hard Nut ,” part of Hoffman’s short story, the dancer who plays Louise takes on the role of Princess Perlipat. In that same scene, Clark, who plays Mrs. Stahlbaum — Clara’s mother — plays the Queen.

With that casting, that scene — set in the more magical lands of Act II — parallels the real world of Act I.

“I think this production is incredibly thoughtful,” Clark said. “Mark [Morris] doesn’t miss any detail when he creates something, especially something that is going to be a story ballet. There’s such a thoughtfulness and throughline, which is just one of his many gifts as a craftsman.”

Many of the fan-favorite scenes are still there, but with a twist. The life-sized mechanical dolls gifted to the Stahlbaum children at the start of the show are a Barbie doll and a robot, and the battle scene is between the classic rats and a platoon of G.I. Joes.

In the snow scene at the end of Act I, dancers bring handfuls of paper snow on stage to throw and scatter as they dance, and all 22 snowflakes wear the same costume, regardless of gender.

Dancers scatter snow during the Act I finale. Photo courtesy of Mat Heyward

It might take several watches to fully appreciate the show, Clark said — years after she first performed it, she’s always finding new details.

“There are certain things that have a bit more mystery or a darkness to them,” she said. “The battle scene, the G.I. Joes, their costumes make them look incredibly muscular … and of course, we have rats, which have long legs, and Mark always discusses that the rats are the smart ones in the battle.”

The Mark Morris Dance Group has another tradition unique to its “Nutcracker:” a very short rehearsal period. This year, rehearsals started on Dec. 2, just 10 days before opening night.

“Historically, we have always put this show together basically in one week’s time,” Clark said. “It’s almost like a boot camp, it’s very much an intensive.”

Dancers rehearse for ‘The Hard Nut.’Photo courtesy of Mark Morris Dance Group

At a Dec. 5 session, dancers gathered around a screen to watch a past production of “The Hard Nut” to get a sense of the scene they were rehearsing. Supervised by Clark and rehearsal assistant Megan Williams, they ran it over and over again, working to nail timing, placement, and choreography.

After a 45-minute session, they took a short break…then dove right into the next scene.

By the end of the fourth day of rehearsal, the company had touched every part of the show, Clark said. Over the next six days, they would practice for hours in the studio, then at BAM, then with the live orchestra and in costume.

“There are so many costume changes, elaborate wigs and makeup, that there’s an entire team of people working backstage,” Clark said. “There’s basically choreography backstage for the performers.”

The Barbie doll and robot life-sized dolls. Photo courtesy of Mat Heyward

“The Hard Nut” has been performed all over the country since its debut in 1991. In 2010, it returned to Brooklyn for the first time since 1992 — and at that time, Morris was still performing in the ballet.

Now in its eighth iteration at BAM, “The Hard Nut” is very much the same and very much different than it was 33 years ago, Clark said.

“It’s inevitably a little bit different each time because we’re different personnel that are in it,” she said. “The passing down of information happens through the lineage of dancers that have been part of Mark Morris Dance Group. There’s many of us that have been around for a long ime that help keep it afloat and pass on the knowledge.”

“The Hard Nut” runs through Dec. 22, 2024, at the Brooklyn Academy of Music, 30 Lafayette Ave. between Ashland Place and St. Felix Street. Tickets are available online starting at $44.