So much so that it preaches culture over sustainability and sometimes achieves opposite results. The Ballet of Catalonia, which this year has been left in its country without a theater for its Christmas Nutcracker, has taken the story with music by Tchaikovsky on tour through the Baltic countries, where they are not exactly short of ballet offerings or of knowledgeable audiences. Not in vain did they spend decades under the Russian halo in the USSR, when the apparatus detected children’s talents in the republics to train them in the capitals and perhaps generate good teachers back home. This is how the Vaganova school in Saint Petersburg maintained its greatness.
Thirty years after Estonia, Latvia and Lithuania achieved independence – and began teaching English instead of Russian in kindergarten – ballet love is still important. Although they overlap with the titles given by the opera houses of Vilnius, Riga or Tallinn, the programmers bring in foreign companies to cover the demand. In Tallinn, where on Thursday the Ballet of Catalonia ended its successful tour (the three capitals plus Kaunas and Siauliai), the director of the Estonian National Ballet, Linnar Looris, explained to this newspaper that the twenty performances of his Nutcracker have been sold out at the Opera.
“And the show sets the interiors in a modern setting, with technological children’s games, which is a reason for the public not to come: here they want a total classic, especially the Russians,” says in the stalls of the Alexela Kontserdimaja, the 1,800-seat auditorium in which the Catalans perform.
Estonia has a 20% Russian population, expats who did not abandon it when the USSR dismembered. “Well, it’s not that I’m Russian, I’m local,” defends an elegant woman who has brought her two daughters to see the Ballet de Catalunya. “We have been in Barcelona and I am excited that a company from there is visiting us,” she says in the intermission, while the young women do not take their mobile screens away. The little girl, about eleven years old, dresses like a romantic knight and defends Tchaikovsky’s music in this ballet. “She’s great,” she points out. So…any dancers in the family? “My grandmother is a ballet actress!” she exclaims. And Ukrainian, her mother clarifies.
A few rows away, a primary school science teacher who has brought her young students to see the show – 34 euros for the cheapest ticket – assures that she does not find it exotic that some come to dance for them from Barcelona. “In the end it is an international company,” she points out. Indeed, several of the soloists in that company of 35 touring dancers are citizens of the world.
Catalina Iliescu, former soloist of the Bucharest Opera and now of the Constanta Opera, has signed on for the role of Clara. And the company’s magnetic soloist, Ellen Mäkelä, sister of the young Finnish batonist Klaus Mäkelä, shines like the Sugar Plum Fairy from E.T.A.’s story. Hoffman what this Christmas classic is based on. But next to the prince played by the Italian Paolo Calò, a graduate of the La Scala Academy, the Catalan David García Lucas shines with aplomb in the role of Captain. And he is just one of the many ‘locals’ who work in the company, because despite only having the support of a few patrons, he maintains up to eleven dancers on the payroll.
Another detail: Clara’s parents include the historic ballet master and former Liceu dancer Ángeles Lacalle and the choreographer Javier Bagà, who has introduced a few touches of popular Catalan dances in the reading by Elías García, the ballet’s artistic director, of Ivanov’s original and Petipa. Inspired by Alice in Wonderland, García proposes a passage through the looking glass so that Clara decides to stop being a child.
“The Nutcracker talks about personal improvement and transformation, about that passage from puberty to adolescence/maturity, when Clara wonders if she should continue playing with dolls or put on a corset. It is a fable and it must continue to be one,” says this great expert on ballet, in its history and in its practice.
“Classes with Elías are something spectacular. You can spend three hours and come out transformed due to the amount of inputs he provides. He works in detail, but also conceptually. It is something extraordinary,” says Mäkelä while Calò and two other dancers nod. .
It has not been easy to catch the mood of the Baltic public. They are expressionless but at the end of the performance they burst into applause. Afterwards, the children remaining in the room respond to Fairy’s call to go up on stage and take photos with her. “It is incredible the number of children that were in the room here in Tallinn and the education with which they have followed the entire ballet. For them, this photo with the character is equivalent to signing the magic of the story. And if the parents post it, it’s a win-win for us, because they make us known in these latitudes,” reasons the enthusiastic Finn, happy to be so close to home and hear such a similar language. “I like Estonians. I understand everything”.
Those responsible for this company based in Terrassa can assure that no one is a prophet in their own land, which has not found a place this Christmas in any theater in the metropolitan area. Not even in the Principal of the same Vallesan town, where in February they present their new Juliet and Romeo, thus, in reverse, and focusing on the bravery of the Shakespearean maiden. The auditoriums of Sant Cugat or Girona have not responded to the request either or have opted for other proposals. Not even the Balañá theaters in Barcelona have wanted ballet this year, waiting for the incomparable Natalia Osipova, Russian star of the Royal Ballet in London, to land on January 10, although with a more contemporary proposal. One for the other, the capital is spending Christmas with two sails in terms of ballet.
Thus, those from Catalonia did not miss the opportunity to go on tour and be exposed to large audiences of more than two thousand people per session. As a result of the tour, they were called to the Diaghilev Festival in Saint Petersburg. And it is possible that they will repeat in the Baltic, says Leo Sorribes, president of the Ballet de Catalunya Foundation, “but in better conditions.” Not being able to set up part of a set one day due to lack of time in the touring calendar is not something a company should accept. Not even the Russian or Ukrainian ones, which usually pass through Spain with some deficiencies.
