Culture Fiend

On Pointe

A PNB Nutcracker dancer talks ballet bloopers and costume malfunctions.

Posted by: Hayley Poole on Nov 25, 2009 at 07:00AM1 Comments

Dancer Jessica Anspach as Commedia in PNB’s The Nutcracker.

Add together 270 Nutcracker performances, 240 pairs of ballet slippers, nine different Nutcracker roles, several pounds of makeup and yards of toile, and you have one slightly exhausted PNB corps de ballet dancer Jessika Anspach. The Bellevue native has performed in nearly half of PNB’s 26 Nutcracker seasons (hence the lifetime supply of shoes); she talks to Seattle Met about the Christmas classic from behind the red curtain.

You dance up to 45 performances of the Nutcracker over the span of one month. How do you do it?

We have a blow-up air mattress where people can nap between shows in our dressing room. But seriously, although so many shows in a row can get exhausting, I wouldn’t have it any other way. I like being challenged. And it’s surprising how the small things can be encouraging—even just smiling and making eye contact with your friends onstage during the “Waltz of the Flowers” is motivation.

Any Nutcracker blooper moments?

The only thing I can think of was the time I collided with one of the canvas wings that divide the stage, fell over it and ripped it during the dance of the snowflakes on Christmas Eve. I still made it back on stage to finish the rest of the dance. The wing, however, didn’t bounce back so quickly.

Ever had a costume malfunction?

The pants the Moors wear in Act II are kind of like MC Hammer pants—they’re puffy on the top and tight at the ankle. My partner has stepped on them and ripped them before.

Do you guys ever pull pranks while rehearsing or performing?

They’re generally reserved for the Christmas Eve performance. One year a dancer dressed up as Waldo from Where’s Waldo and popped in throughout the show. Another time Pasha’s attendants in Act II pulled out newspaper and laid it in the Peacock’s cage while she danced.

What is the best part about the seasonal PNB Nutcracker performances?

Dancing Nutcracker makes it really feel like Christmas in Seattle, where we don’t typically—I don’t count last year as typical—get much snow or wintery wonderland scenes. And despite the fact that the snow falling at the end of Act I is only paper confetti, the conditions can still be just as slippery. Most of the time we scrape up the bottoms of our pointe shoes so they have a little more traction during that scene.

And as for me, I get to dance in my own home city—there’s nowhere else I’d want to be.

You can find Jessika pirouetting across the McCaw stage this winter season, alternating performances as the Ballerina Doll and Frau Stahlbaum, Clara’s mother, in Act I, and Commedia in Act II. See if you can also catch her in the entourage of snowflake and flower waltzers, employing snow-confetti avoidance tactics. PNB’s Nutcracker opens Nov 27.