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A spoonful of sugar plums: dancers on dishing up nutcracker magic.

Article Excerpt
The Sugar Plum Fairy is ballet's ambassador. For so many girls, she's the first ballerina they ever lay eyes on. It' the dancer performs the role with warmth, graciousness, and elegance, the spell is cast. Sugar Plum not only welcomes Clara and her prince into the Land of the Sweets in The Nutcracker, but provides the classical high point to this favorite holiday ballet. Here seven dancers talk about why they (mostly) love this annual ritual.

JENNIE SOMOGYI

Principal, New York City Ballet

The Nutcracker is the one ballet that everyone knows. The kids love it, and before you get out onstage they already like you.

I find the solo in the beginning really difficult. In Balanchine's version, the Sugar Plum variation is performed at the beginning of the second act. I like to move a lot when I dance, but it's all underneath yourself and very precise. The music's very quiet and not a lot's happening, and all the angels are watching you. The pas de deux is the fun part. The coda keeps the momentum going, and it has more of the gasp! factor than the variation.

When I was Marie in 1986 and 1987, I would sit on the throne, and my hands would sweat because I would get nervous for the Sugar Plum. Everyone was waiting for...

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