McKenzie Fisher (left) and Kyla Williams (center), shown in the 2018 production, will share the role of Clara this year.
"The Nutcracker” is a beloved tradition in our family, in part because the multiracial and multiethnic families in the Richmond Ballet production’s opening party scene look like ours.
I first noticed this diversity three years ago, when my oldest daughter played a mouse. I thought it must have been a fluke. But since then, the cast has become even more diverse, while professional dancers have come and gone. Stoner Winslett, the ballet’s longtime artistic director, says she made the decision to have multiracial families in the party scene when she directed her first “Nutcracker” production in 1980.
“Ballet is an incredibly beautiful thing,” she says, “and I think it should be for everybody.”
For years, the ballet’s two professional companies have employed multiple dancers of color. There have long been several black dancers, including Maggie Small, who retired this fall after a 16-year career. There are also Asian and Latino professional dancers, including Small’s longtime dance partner, Fernando Sabino, who is from Brazil. He plans to retire from the company in May.
The diverse racial makeup of the companies has meant that many of the couples in the 20-minute party scene consisted of at least one black or brown professional dancer — sometimes both. Some of their children, played by School of Richmond Ballet students, also have been brown or black.
As I sat watching from the balcony, I thought about the significance of the casting, which normalizes mixed marriages like mine — I’m a white woman married to a brown man of indigenous and European heritage.
Enjoli Moon, a black Richmond native, says the ballet has been welcoming to her 16-year-old son, Jonah Hodari, who was cast twice as the prince. “They are making themselves a bit of a model to set the stage for inclusivity,” says Moon, founder of the Afrikana Independent Film Festival and assistant curator of film at the Institute for Contemporary Art at VCU.
In a field long dominated by white women, a movement is afoot to welcome a range of body types, skin colors and economic backgrounds into ballet. The Richmond Ballet has joined The Equity Project, a national effort involving 20 other dance companies working to bring in black dancers. Misty Copeland, the first black female principal dancer of the American Ballet Theatre, is one of the dancers leading the national conversation.
Small, whose mother is black and father is white, says she always felt she belonged at the Richmond Ballet, but she couldn’t help noticing there weren’t other female dancers who looked like her.
“For the entirety of my career, I was the only black female dancer in the company,” says Small, who is now a grant writer for the ballet. When she retired, she told Winslett, “I feel like I’m abandoning some little girls who looked up to me.”
While parts of the Richmond Ballet’s “Nutcracker” production are representative, others are less so. For example, the snowflake and flower roles are played by trainees — dancers in their late teens and early 20s training to become professionals — who are mostly white. The vast majority of students and staff members are white, too. That’s something the ballet has been working to change, says Judy Jacob, director of the ballet’s school and artistic associate.
Multiracial families are featured in “The Nutcracker” party scene, shown in 2016.
As part of its Equity Project work, the Richmond Ballet is developing an organizational strategy to increase diversity not just at the student and company level, but also within its board, administration, faculty and staff. The ballet is also introducing a mentoring program between professionals and students.
The ballet established Minds in Motion 25 years ago to offer free dance instruction to all Richmond-area fourth graders, and the program has enabled the ballet to recruit more dancers of color and more boys from the Richmond region, including Jonah Hodari. Small and company dancer Ira White, who is black, also participated in the program.
There have been several instances when Clara was played by a brown or black student, including Small in 1997, and in recent years, there’s been an increase in the number of prominent “Nutcracker” roles played by students of color. Winslett says that she chooses the most qualified dancers, but having a diverse cast is intentional. “When people come to the theater, they want to be able to see themselves onstage,” she says.
This year, my daughters immediately noticed, while scanning the cast list, that neither Clara was white. My youngest daughter proclaimed it “so cool” that the two students cast as Clara — Kyla Williams and McKenzie Fisher — are both black, a first for the ballet. McKenzie also has Japanese and Mexican heritage.
Moon says that her son and his friends are buzzing with excitement. Having both Claras played by black dancers affirms their place in the art form, not just for young dancers, but for all the children seated in the theater with their families, no matter what shape they take.
Kristen Green is a former newspaper reporter and the author of “Something Must Be Done About Prince Edward County.” Her daughters are both Richmond Ballet students and are dancing in “The Nutcracker” party scene this year. Richmond Ballet’s production of “The Nutcracker” runs through Dec. 23 at the Carpenter Theatre at Dominion Energy Center. For details, see richmondballet.com.
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