The Sugar Plum Fairy
Ballet West Principal Artist Katlyn Addison recalls the first time she saw the Sugar Plum Fairy, and the events that led to her becoming the first black ballerina to dance the role at Ballet West, in 2015: “My mom told me that when I was four, the Sugar Plum Fairy came on stage with her big smile and huge eyes, and I looked up and asked her, ‘When I grow up, can I do that and dance like her?’ My mom is an educator, and she replied, ‘You can do anything you want to do when you grow up.’ Fast forward to 2015, after three years of understudying the role, and Artistic Director Adam Sklute surprised me by asking what color tights I wanted to wear when performing the Sugar Plum Fairy. The first thing that came to my mind was, ‘Thank you, God, I have finally made it.’”
Pas de Deux
“The Sugar Plum Fairy pas de deux shifts the entire Nutcracker into high gear. Some may assume that the dancing is easy, but Sugar Plum is one of the most complicated routines we do all year,” said Interim Principal Rehearsal Director Jane Victorine Wood. For this principal role, dancers begin training in September. There is some deviation in the choreography from pair to pair, as stagers allow dancers to use their talents and skill set to maximize the performance. This was certainly true for Jane, who the Deseret News wrote of in 1995, “Of course the show capper occurred during the second act as the Sugar Plum Fairy and Cavalier—danced Friday by Jane Wood and Jeffrey Rogers—took the stage for a moving grand pas de deux. Both dancers were concise and their timing was impeccable. The pair’s solo variations brought applause and cheers. The couple came together and ended their finale on a strikingly sharp pose in time with the music.”
