Growing up in Antioch during the 1940s and ’50s, Jeanne Rose heard about San Francisco Ballet’s production of “Nutcracker,” but her family never made the trip into the city to see it. In 1968, she purchased a pair of balcony tickets to take her 4-year-old daughter, Amber, to a performance of the beloved story ballet. Rose still recalls her first time seeing the production’s Christmas tree expand until it filledthe opera house stage.
“When that tree started to grow, something beautiful grew inside me,” Rose says. “We were enthralled. Nineteen-sixty-eightstarted my path at the ballet. The beautiful music, the glorious visions on stage, the dancers, it was magical.”
Now, 52 years later (45 as a season ticket holder) this is the first year that Rose will not be attending a “Nutcracker” performance. And even though San Francisco Ballet isstreaming a recorded performance今年由于冠状病毒大流行的再保险strictions on live events, Rose hasn’t decided yet whether she’ll watch.
“I just can’t watch the ballet on a 3-inch screen on my phone, and my computer I associate with work,” Rose says. “It won’t be the same on video.”
“Nutcracker” has been a holiday tradition across the U.S. for almost eight decades (in other countries it’s not as identified with the holidays), but San Francisco has a special historic connection to the work. In 1944, the San Francisco Ballet mounted the first full-length American production of “Nutcracker.” Since then, it’s been a pillar of the company’s holiday season.
“I can’t tell you how many people have talked to me during intermission saying, ‘Oh, I brought my children here, now I’m bringing my grandchildren,’ ” says Helgi Tomasson, the San Francisco Ballet’s artistic director. “It seems to be something that resonates as a tradition, passing down that joy. … There are people who say, ‘I come every year, I travel from Southern California every year to see it.’ ”
Laura Simon first saw the ballet with her parents when she was 5. Every year since her family has gone to the Christmas Eve matinee.
“Once my mom suggested that maybe we should try something new this year,” Simon says. “I just gave her a look and the conversation was over.”
Although Simon grew up with the 1986 San Francisco Ballet production, she’s a big fan of Tomasson’s 2004 “Nutcracker” production, which set the story in 1915 San Francisco, the year of the Panama Pacific International Exhibition. Act 1includes a typical row of San Francisco Victorian houses on a street and then brings you inside one of the stately homes. The second act transformed the traditional Candyland setting of the ballet to inside one of the exhibition’s glass halls.
“I was a little reluctant about them changing it at first, but I’m obsessed with the sets and costumes in the new production,” Simon says. “That house is so recognizable and amazing.”
This year the ballet is offeringprints of a watercolor Laura Ann Elbogen created, inspired by the production’s Victorian home setting, with characters from the ballet interspersed throughout the piece.
“There’s something about that curtain going up and suddenly you’re on this familiar street that gives you a real sense of belonging,” Elbogen says. “We live around these types of buildings. The production feels like you’re coming home, I wanted to pay tribute to that with my painting.”
Elbogen grew up in Indiana and first saw the ballet as a child: She has seen the San Francisco Ballet production every year since moving to the city in 2014. Her daughter is even named in tribute to the ballet’s main character: Clara.
Grant Beggs grew up in Toronto and remembers seeing the National Ballet of Canada’s production every year with his family starting when he was 5. When Beggs’ daughter Gigi turned the same age, he and his husband, David Garcia, brought her to “Nutcracker” at San Francisco Ballet for the first time, continuing the family tradition. This year, they plan to watch the streamed San Francisco Ballet production and are considering getting dressed up as they would to see it in the theater, to keep a sense of occasion.
Neeracha Taychakhoonavudh also began bringing her children to “Nutcracker” when they were 5, and every year the family bought commemorative nutcrackers from the Ballet gift shop. Her children are now in their 20s, and she estimates that 25 to 30 nutcrackers come out of storage every holiday season.
“Of course we’ll be watching this year online, not just to see the performance but to support the San Francisco Ballet,” Taychakhoonavudh says. “Anything you can do this year to help the arts is important.”
San Francisco Ballet principal dancer Sarah Van Patten has been with the company for 18 years. She has danced the roles of the Queen of the Snow and the Sugar Plum Fairy and danced in the Grand Pas de Deux and in the French and Arabian variations of “Nutcracker.” For her, seeing the excitement in children’s faces when they come onstageor waitat the stage door to meet her “brings out that little girl in me who started dancing in the first place.”
Over the years she has observed children and adults that grab handfuls of the artificial snow off the stage as a souvenir. “It’s just little pieces of paper, but they really want to take something home from the production.”
For the past 15 years, Van Patten and other company members have performed for patients at UCSF Children’s Hospital. This year, the visit will happen virtually, like the ballet itself.
“It’s strange not doing it this year,” Van Patten says. “But with everything we’re doing online, you realize that’s actually able to reach farther. Maybe that will be something that helps introduce more kids to the ballet. It might become part of a new tradition.”
“Nutcracker Online”:San Francisco Ballet. Through Dec. 31. $49, includes 48-hour access to programming. 415-865-2000.sfballet.org