The list starts with programs with specific start dates. Following those listings are programs that are already available but have end dates.

Here are my Dance Best Bets for the Holidays:

Don Quixote – The Royal Ballet – YouTube – December 25th – January 6th

England’s The Royal Ballet is making their 2019 production of Don Quixote available for free on their YouTube channel.

This production was first introduced in 2013 and is based on the novel by Miguel de Cervantes. It tells the story of Don Quixote and Sancho Panza, his servant, who set out on an adventure. When they meet a young couple who want to get married but her father has other ideas, they decide to get involved to make a happy ending not just for the two lovers, but also her father.

This Carlos Acosta production was inspired by the classic 1869 ballet by Marius Petipa. In 2019 Acosta made some revisions to his original choreography. Also introduced in 2019 were on-stage musicians. The music is by Czech composer Ludwig Minkus who also wrote the score for La Bayadère.

Clara’s Nutcracker Tea Party – Los Angeles Ballet – Now – January 1st

Rather than offer a traditional performance of The Nutcracker, Los Angeles Ballet has created Clara’s Nutcracker Tea Party.

Clara is the young girl at the center of the ballet. Joining her tea party are Marie, Columbine, Nutcracker, and Snow. During the party there will be excerpts from The Nutcracker and there is an interactive component that involved a package sent to viewers when this first aired in 2019. Though those packages are not available, there are suggestions on the website how to simulate that part of the experience at home.

Children will be encouraged to dance, make crafts and learn about the ballet they are watching.

Tickets are $39.99 and allow for replaying through New Year’s Day.

Dance Dreams: Hot Chocolate Nutcracker – Netflix – Now available

Famed choreographer Debbie Allen (did you catch that pun?) has created a new version of The Nutcracker for the Debbie Allen Dance Academy students to perform.

This documentary, airing on Netflix, follows Allen and her students through the creation of a production of her ballet, Hot Chocolate Nutcracker. Allen infuses the ballet with examinations of body image, diversity and inclusion. Hers is a ballet that speaks to the world we live in today.

When Hot Chocolate Nutcracker played in Southern California last year, Allen said in her notes on the website, “I have taken tradition and given it a new context, fresh lively characters, new music and spectacular dancing to bring a vibrant, unforgettable theater experience for all ages to enjoy.”

For the 2019 production the music used included Mariah Carey, Tena Clark, Shiamak Davar, James Ingram, Chau-Gian Thi Nguyen, Arturo Sandoval and Thump.

State of Darkness – The Joyce Theater – Now – January 10th

In 1988 choreographer Molissa Fenley debuted a solo project called State of Darkness. The 35-minute seriously intense work is set to the music of Igor Stravinsky’s Rite of Spring.

Fenley restaged her solo individually with seven dancers: 2020 Juilliard grad Jared Brown; Lloyd Knight of Martha Graham Dance Company; Sara Mearns of the New York City Ballet; Shamel Pitts, former Batsheva Dance Company member; Annique Roberts of Ronald K. Brown/EVIDENCE; Cassandra Trenary of American Ballet Theatre; and Michael Trusnovec of Paul Taylor American Dance Company. 

Anna Kisselgoff, writing in the New York Times in 1988, said of State of Darkness , “Molissa Fenley’s use of Stravinsky’s ‘Sacre du Printemps’ as music for a new dance solo succeeds beyond expectation. A dancer who has been unmatched on the experimental scene for her explosive, even primal, energy, Miss Fenley has found her true center here.”

Tickets are $12.

And, of course, there is The Nutcracker itself.

Though a staple of ballet companies around the world, The Nutcracker was not considered a success when it debuted in St. Petersburg in 1892. In fact, it wasn’t until the 1960s that it became embraced.

In the ballet, Clara is enamored with a nutcracker that her godfather has brought to a Christmas eve celebration. Others aren’t so interested and Fritz actually breaks the nutcracker. After all the guests have left for the evening – and just as midnight strikes – Clara checks in on the broken nutcracker. That’s when the world of toys, mice, fairies, Christmas trees and her beloved nutcracker come to magical life.

The music was written by Pyotr Illyich Tchaikovsky. If you’ve seen the Disney film Fantasia, you are well-acquainted with the music.

Not all Nutcracker ballets are the same. We’ve selected a few from which you can choose your own Nutcracker adventure.

George Balanchine’s The Nutcracker – New York City Ballet on Marquee TV – Now – January 3rd

Choreographer George Balanchine danced the role of The Prince in The Nutcracker in 1919. Thirty-five years later he created his own ballet of this popular holiday classic. It became so iconic that it is now referred to as George Balanchine’s The Nutcracker.

New York City Ballet is making this ballet available via Marquee TV. You have to register (if you don’t already have an account) on Marquee’s website. New accounts get a 30-day free trial. You can also rent it for $25 which allows for viewing for 48 hours after first starting the film.

Great Russian Nutcracker – Moscow Ballet – Now – January 1st

For $24.99 you can see how they dance The Nutcracker in Russia where the ballet first came to life. Tickets are available through December 29th, but you can stream the ballet through New Year’s Day.

The Hip Hop Nutcracker – Center Theatre Group – Now – January 3rd

Not a traditional Nutcracker! This is Jennifer Weber’s fusion of hip hop and contemporary dance. You’ll hear Tchaikovsky’s music, but it isn’t going to be just a full symphonic performance. A DJ and a violinist also provide accompaniment for a dozen dancers who perform, not in 19th Century German, but in contemporary New York City.

The performance opens with a brief set by MC Kurtis Blow and the production employees digital graffiti as part of its visuals.

The Hip Hop Nutcracker was recorded live at the New Jersey Performing Arts Center. The performance runs 83 minutes.

There are 19 showings remaining. Tickets are $20 which allows for viewing starting at a set performance time (the schedule can be found in title link) and allows for continued viewing for a total of 24 hours. VIP tickets are $50 and include continued viewing for 72 hours; a signed poster and access to a pre-filmed Q&A.

Nutcracker Online – San Francisco Ballet – Available through December 31st

San Francisco Ballet’s 2008 production will be available for streaming throughout the holidays.

This production was choreographed by Helgi Tomasson. The company features Elizabeth Powell as Clara, Yuan Yuan Tan as the Snow Queen, Pierre-François Vilanoba as the Snow King, Vanessa Zahorian as the Sugar Plum Fairy with the grand pas de deux danced by Maria Kochetkova and Davit Karapetyan.

Tickets are $49 and allow viewing for 48 hours. There are also interactive components included. Tickets are available here.

Those are my Dance Best Bets for the Holidays. I hope visions of sugar plum fairies dancing fill you with joy.

I also have recommendations for Classical, Jazz and Musicals/Cabaret if you want even more choices.

Photo by Kacper Szczechia (@wyroq)

The post Dance Best Bets for the Holidays appeared first on Cultural Attaché.

This weekend’s Best Bets include traditional ballet and hip-hop dance; a celebration of one of America’s greatest playwrights; an opera legend in concert; a production of an opera by Stravinsky; a chamber music concert from Carnegie Hall; one of Broadway’s most provocative events and a live concert with a Broadway star who knows his way around roller skates.

Here are your Best Bets at Home: July 31st – August 2nd:

The Sleeping Beauty – Royal Ballet – Now – August 6th

Fourteen years ago, the Royal Ballet dusted off their 1946 original staging of Sleeping Beauty. While the costumes and designs by Oliver Messel remained in tact, they combined the choreography of Marius Petipa from the 19th century with new sections created by Frederick Ashton, Anthony Dowell and Christopher Wheeldon.

The music of Pyotr Ilyich Tchaikovsky remains front and center as does the story of a young girl, Aurora, who has a curse placed on her. On her 16th birthday she will prick her finger on a spindle and die. The Lilac Fairy can’t reverse the curse, but she does create an opposing spell that spares Aurora from death, but she will remain asleep until a handsome prince kisses her.

Fumi Kaneko dances the role of Aurora. Kristen McNally dances the role of Carabosse who puts the curse on the girl. The Lilac Fairy is danced by Gina Storm Jensen. The Prince is danced by Federico Bonelli.

The Kindness of Strangers – TennesseeWilliams.net – July 31st – August 14

When the 2020 Tennessee Williams & New Orleans Literary Festival had to be cancelled, actor Bryan Batt (Mad Men) suggested rounding up long-time participants in the festival and taking it online. The result is Friday’s The Kindness of Strangers. The event takes place live on Friday, July 31st at 8:00 PM EDT/5:00 PM PDT. It will remain available online for free through August 14th.

If you need me to tell you the source of the event’s title, perhaps The Kindness of Strangers isn’t for you. But for a quick refresher course on Williams, he is the playwright who gave us The Glass Menagerie, Summer and Smoke, The Rose Tattoo, Cat on a Hot Tin Roof, Orpheus Descending, Suddenly Last Summer, Sweet Bird of Youth, The Night of the Iguana and, of course, A Streetcar Named Desire.

The festival was launched in 1986, so they have a length list of participants and many of them are joining for The Kindness of Strangers.

Batt will serves as the host. The scheduled performers includes: Samantha Beaulieu, Troi Bechet, Curtis Billings, Betty Buckley (Camino Real), Leslie Castay, Michael Cerveris, Patricia Clarkson, Patrick Cragin, Brenda  Currin, Lisa  D’Amour, Arsène DeLay, Gwendolyne Foxworth, Alison Fraser, Lawrence Henry Gobble, John Goodman (who was a terrific “Big Daddy” in Cat on a Hot Tin Roof at the Geffen Playhouse), Rodney Hicks, Kenneth  Holditch, Corey Johnson, Idella Johnson, Peggy Scott Laborde, Donald Lewis, Ti Martin, Elizabeth McCoy, Jessica Mixon, Whitney Mixon, Wendell Pierce (who gives a great performance in the film Clemency), Francine Segal, Janet  Shea, Harry Shearer, Carol Sutton, Beverly Trask, Kathleen Turner (Cat on a Hot Tin Roof), Cassie Worley, and Jake Wynne-Wilson.

The Kindness of Strangers is free to watch, but donations are encouraged.

Janine Jansen and Jean-Yves Thibaudet play Grieg, Debussy, and Chausson – Medici.tv – Now – August 2nd

This week’s Carnegie Hall concert made available on Medici.tv finds violinist Janine Jansen and pianist Jean-Yves Thibaudet performing a chamber musical recital from 2018. They are joined by the Dover Quartet for performances of music by Edvard Grieg, Claude Debussy and Ernest Chausson.

The program offers Debussy’s Sonata for Violin and Piano in G Minor; Grieg’s Violin Sonata No. 2 in G Major and Chausson’s Concert for Violin, Piano and String Quartet in D Major.

This concert was part of Carnegie Hall’s Perspectives series which allows an artist to program a series of concerts. This was the next-to-last of Jansen’s series.

Zoo Nation: The Mad Hatter’s Tea Party – Royal Ballet – July 31st

Hip-hop meets Lewis Carroll in this adaptation inspired by the author’s Alice’s Adventures in Wonderland.

Zoo Nation/The Kate Prince Company was commissioned to put this dance piece together by The Royal Ballet to accompany Christopher Wheeldon’s full-length ballet named after Carroll’s book.

The Mad Hatter’s Tea Party centers around a young psychotherapist in his first job at the Institute for Extremely Normal Behaviour. His patients are all familiar characters to fans of this book: the March Hare, the Mad Hatter, Tweedledum and Tweedledee and the Queen of Hearts. He hopes his PhD in normalization will help him understand his patients better. Perhaps there isn’t anything to understand beyond that normal may not be all it is cracked up to be.

Kate Prince directed and choreographed the show. Music is by Josh Cohen and DJ Walde with all three creators collaborating on the lyrics.

Zoë Anderson from the The Independent in London said of the show, “Prince blends big group numbers with explosive solos. The whole company is strong, with dazzling turns by some of its best regular performers.”

Renée Fleming in Concert – Metropolitan Opera – August 1st – 1:00 PM EDT/10:00 AM PDT

As part of the Metropolitan Opera’s ongoing series of Met Stars Live in Concert, Renée Fleming will be accompanied by pianist Robert Ainsley for a live recital from Washington, D.C.’s Dumbarton Oaks.

Lyric soprano Fleming is amongst the most popular opera singers in the world.

A graduate of Juilliard, she won the Metropolitan Opera Auditions in 1988. That same year she made her debut with the Houston Grand Opera Company in The Marriage of Figaro. She sang the role of The Countess. Three years later she made her Metropolitan Opera debut in the same opera and the rest is history.

She is a 17-time Grammy Award nominee with four wins. She’s a fierce advocate for the study of health and music and how they are intertwined. Fleming is also passionate about education. She can be found on Broadway (the most recent revival of Carousel) and has collaborated with a wide range of artists including Joe Jackson, Elvis Costello, Brad Mehldau and more.

The recital is scheduled to include works by Handel (Semele), Massenet (Manon), Richard Strauss (Der Rosenkavalier), Korngold (Die Tote Stadt), Cilea (Adriana Lecouvreur), Puccini (Giannia Schicchi) along with a folk song by Joseph Canteloube and a little nod to Hollywood with Over the Rainbow from The Wizard Oz by Harold Arlen and Yip Harburg.

Tickets to watch the concert are $20. With your ticket you will be able to watch the performance live and have access to it for 12 days.

Broadway Bares: Zoom In – Broadway Cares/Equity Fights AIDS – August 1st – 9:30 PM EDT/6:30 PM PDT

One of the most popular annual events in the Broadway community is a burlesque show called Broadway Bares. Director/choreographer Jerry Mitchell created the event to raise money for Broadway Cares/Equity Fights AIDS.

Broadway Bares finds Broadway dancers performing uniquely choreographed routines that all gradually peel away their clothes.

Nobody appears fully nude in show, as per the truest tradition of burlesque. Men and women perform the numbers which are choreographed by some of the Broadway community’s best.

This is always one of the toughest tickets to get in New York. But this year, we’re all invited. Broadway Bares: Zoom In takes place on Saturday and will feature newly created pieces filmed/performed adhering to social distancing guidelines, plus there will be films of classic routines from the nearly 30-year history of the event.

There is no charge to watch the event, but donations are encouraged.

The Rake’s Progress – Glyndebourne – August 2nd – August 9th

Igor Stravinsky’s opera had its world premiere in Venice in 1951. Poet W. H. Auden and poet/librettist Chester Kallman wrote the libretto. All three were inspired by artist William Hogarth’s paintings from the 1730s – a series entitled A Rake’s Progress.

The opera traces the fall of Tom Rakewell. When he encounters Nick Shadow, he leaves behind Anne Truelove. Shadow and Rakewell soak up all that London has to offer.

But Rakewell is unaware that Shadow is actually the Devil. One series of events leads to another and our protagonist finds himself in a mental word.

In this 2010 production from Glyndebourne, Topi Lehtipuu sings the role of Rakewell. Matthew Rose sings Shadow and Miah Persson sings the role of Truelove.

This is a revival of John Cox’s 1975 production that was designed by artist David Hockney. Vladimir Jurowski lead the London Philharmonic Orchestra.

Tim Ashley, writing for The Guardian, said of this revival, “Designed by David Hockney and directed by John Cox, Glyndebourne’s production of The Rake’s Progress dates from 1975 and is still widely regarded as the benchmark staging of Stravinsky’s great, if difficult, opera.

“Hockney’s designs mediate between the 18th century and the 20th, just as the score self-consciously shuttles between Mozartian models and modernism. Cox’s understanding, meanwhile, of when to keep us detached and when to let emotions through remains wonderfully acute.”

Cheyenne Jackson with Seth Rudetsky – BroadwayWorld.com – August 2nd – 8:00 PM EDT/5:00 PM PDT

If you only know Cheyenne Jackson from his roles on Glee or American Horror Story, there’s much more than that to him. For it is Broadway where he truly rose to fame.

Jackson made his Broadway debut as a replacement in the musical Aida. He was also a replacement in Thoroughly Modern Millie.

Audiences started taking serious notice when he starred in the musical All Shook Up in 2005. The stage musical Xanadu was next in 2007 (which showcased his roller skating abilities). He starred alongside Kate Baldwin in the wonderful 2009 revival of Finian’s Rainbow. His most recent show was The Performers in 2012.

Jackson joins music director/composer/pianist and Broadway expert Seth Rudetsky for his weekly Online Seth Concert Series. The show will be a combination of conversation and song. Sunday’s performance will be live. If you can’t watch the show live, there is an encore showing on Monday, August 3rd at 3:00 PM EDT/12:00 PM PDT.

Tickets are $20 for either performance.

As you can see, this week’s Best Bets at Home: July 31st – August 2nd is a short but sweet list. But I have a few reminders before we go:

This weekend’s opera productions from the Metropolitan Opera are Dvořák’s Rusalka on Friday; Verdi’s Ernani on Saturday and Wagner’s Die Walküre on Sunday.

SF Jazz continues their multi-part Wayne Shorter Celebration on Fridays at Five with Branford Marsalis and Terence Blanchard on Friday at 8:00 PM EDT/5:00 PM PDT.

The Fred Hirsch Trio will perform live sets from the Village Vanguard on Friday and Saturday at 9:00 PM EDT/6:00 PM PDT.

The Julius Rodriguez Trio performs live from Smalls on Sunday at 7:45 PM EDT/4:45 PM PDT.

I hope you enjoy this weekend’s Best Bets at Home: July 31st – August 2nd. Stay safe and healthy!

Photo: Artwork from the Tennessee Williams & New Orleans Literary Festival 2020 Cover/Courtesy of the Festival

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