New York City Ballet’s production of George Balanchine’s The Nutcracker® features 61 young dancers in every performance. The children onstage are all students in the Children’s Division at the School of American Ballet and were prepared for their roles by Children’s Repertory Director Dena Abergel and Associate Children’s Repertory Director Arch Higgins. Since early October, the 122 children aged 8 to 13 who comprise the production’s alternating casts have been rehearsing under the watchful eyes of Abergel and Higgins, who work year-round to prepare SAB students for performances with New York City Ballet.
“It’s a lot of work, but it’s great for the kids because they have so many more opportunities to perform, which was Balanchine’s idea,” says Higgins.
Abergel and Higgins, who assumed their positions in 2012 and 2013 respectively, are the latest in a short line of children’s repertory directors charged with rehearsing young SAB students for NYCB ballets with roles for children. Balanchine, who co-founded NYCB, made it a point to feature children in his ballets whenever possible, inspired by the wonder he experienced at age 11 dancing as a Cupid in The Sleeping Beauty with the Maryinsky Ballet. Initially, Balanchine often coached the children himself along with rehearsal directors from the Company. By the early 1970s, David Richardson, a NYCB dancer who had per- formed the role of the Nutcracker Prince as a child, became the first person designated to help rehearse the children. Garielle Whittle, a dancer with NYCB for 14 years, next headed the program from 1983 to 2012. Abergel began her current role after assisting Whittle for three years. “I took so many notes,” she says. “Garielle was a direct link to Mr. B, and it’s so important that we honor his choreography."
Like their predecessors, Abergel and Higgins enjoyed long, satisfying careers as dancers with NYCB—18 years for Abergel who originated roles in West Side Story Suite, The Sleeping Beauty, and Carnival of the Animals, and 22 years for Higgins, a Soloist who danced featured roles in Agon, Allegro Brillante, and Fancy Free. Although they had started teaching careers at SAB, neither had entertained the idea of rehearsing children for the stage before former Ballet Master in Chief Peter Martins offered them their jobs, yet each quickly embraced the assignment. “Watching each child grow and develop alongside their training over the four or five years we work with them is a privilege,” Abergel says.
With its large cast of children and nearly 50-performance run, The Nutcracker is the year’s centerpiece for the pair and always a sprint. Because the young dancers go to school full-time in addition to taking ballet classes, weekly rehearsals take place on weekday evenings and Sunday afternoons. Abergel even records herself counting steps to the music so the children can practice at home. The approach is to methodically break down the steps, counts, and formations, and then repeat, repeat, and repeat until everything the young dancers do comes naturally. Then, they can go on stage with confidence and joy.
Additional instruction is needed for roles that call for pantomime, like that of the Prince, who wordlessly recounts how the Mouse King was defeated. “It’s a new language for them to learn,” says Abergel.
But the two repertory directors agree that their job is made easier by Balanchine’s gift for creating sophisticated yet age-appropriate choreography that helps each group of dancers build vital skills, from the Angels, aged 8 to 9, who begin with stage directions and how to count to music, to the Polichinelles and Candy Canes, aged 11 to 12, who tackle increasingly challenging choreography.
Rehearsing and performing also help the children experience dance differently from what unfolds in a ballet class. As Higgins explains, “Class is about learning technique, which involves repetition, like brushing the teeth. Rehearsals are not only about steps, but how to unleash your personality and imagination on stage.”
An especially rewarding part of being a children’s repertory director is imparting lessons that go beyond perfecting ballet steps. Abergel says, “My job is to teach the kids about confidence, learning, and discipline. What they experience through dancing, learning choreography, and performing will serve them in every aspect of their lives.”
To know that the young dancers leave with indelible memories of their Nutcracker experience is truly gratifying. “It’s unbelievable, the heightened emotions these kids have at the very last show,” Higgins observes. “Even after the long season, you just see how much joy this brings them. They don’t want it to end.”
