Sky’s Nutcracker: Backstage with English National Ballet invited us behind the scenes as production ramped up on one of the biggest ballet shows of the year –The Nutcracker, which opens this week at the London Coliseum. Diligent rehearsals and pretty tutus? Sounds lovely!
But the opening episode of this three-part documentary series was, frankly, insipid. Without any friction, it felt more like a very long trailer for the live ballet than entertainment in its own right. I could have used an affair, an argument, or even just a bit of gentle rivalry to up the ante.
That could all be on the way, of course, as the job of this first instalment seemed to be mainly to set the scene. We met everyone from the principal dancers – Ivana Bueno as Clara, and Gabriele Frola as her nutcracker prince – to the choreographers and costume designers, and it was by turns thrilling and tedious to see how the ballet sausage was made. Though I couldn’t shake the feeling that it would ultimately be more fun to just to watch the end performance.
Certainly, The Nutcracker is a magical production – it captures the annual wonder of Christmas and there’s a reason it’s put on every year. I’m sure many watching will have seen a version of it at some point in their lives, ballet fans or not.
But while the enduring popularity of its central show made this documentary feel more accessible – who can resist the dance of the sugar plum fairy? – it didn’t do much to dispel the idea of ballet as elitist or pretentious. Segments about how to dye silk or darn pointe shoes seemed geared towards ballet aficionados rather than the average viewer who couldn’t find anything else to watch, and there was an assumption that you could already speak the technical language of professional ballet.
What a shame. Surely part of the rationale for making the documentary in the first place was to introduce new audiences to the art form, but no effort was made to get us up to speed.
“It’s not Arabesque passé dévelopé, it’s Ara-dévelopé,” said artistic manager Aaron S Watkin, an ex-dancer who walked around like he might burst into a dévelopé of his own at any moment, during rehearsal with Bueno.
While I rather enjoyed Watkin’s intensity, it still didn’t translate into drama. He was nice to the dancers around him, and they listened conscientiously to his constructive critiques. A tantalising flicker of conflict came when Bueno couldn’t immediately do a move, but was quickly extinguished when she promptly mastered it after only a few attempts.
Nice for her, but a shame for anyone keen on narrative arcs. Similar docuseries like Cheer, which follows a group of American cheerleaders fighting tooth and nail for their spot in one of the country’s most competitive squads, have made us accustomed to glimpsing human fallibility in super-human athletes. But if there was a chink in its dancers’ armours, Nutcracker: Backstage wasn’t letting on.
Rather, its principle narrative thread came from the ballet itself, and it was genuinely interesting to see choreographer Arielle Smith and Watkin collaborate as they coaxed the classic production into something fresh. The ruse of having characters from the first act reappear in the second seemed a smart way of refiguring the narrative without mangling it, as did the idea of centring Clara’s character rather than having her follow the prince’s lead.
Of course, the proof will be in the (sugar plum) pudding – and I look forward to seeing the final production, which will also show on Sky Arts on 23 December and shows every sign of being a triumph. But while I’ve never staged a world class ballet, things must surely go wrong sometimes – ironically, making it all the more satisfying when they go right.
All polish and no peril, Nutcracker: Backstage with English National Ballet was ultimately too reverent of its subject matter to deliver on the “backstage” part of its titular promise. Don’t invite us behind the curtain if you’re not willing to show us what’s really there.
Nutcracker: Backstage with English National Ballet continues next Monday at 8pm on Sky Arts
Liz Truss needs to take her own advice, and cease and desist