Goh Ballet fosters young talent and holiday cheer with 15th edition of The Nutcracker
Amid tulle tutus and fleecey lambs, director Chan Hon Goh reflects on the history of the “feel-good production”
Goh Ballet’s The Nutcracker. Photo by David Cooper
Goh Ballet presents The Nutcracker at the Queen Elizabeth Theatre from December 18 to 21
BEHIND THE HOLIDAY MAGIC of Goh Ballet’s The Nutcracker is an impressive collection of handcrafted props and glittery costumes. During a recent preview of the academy’s annual winter production at its historic Main Street headquarters, many of those items were on display, ranging from a human-height knife and fork to a sparkly white “Waltz of the Snowflakes” dress to a furry Mouse King headpiece with a red-feathered crown and electrical-wire whiskers.
That last costume piece was constructed for Goh Ballet’s very first edition of The Nutcracker in 2009—a sign of both the care the organization puts into the production, and the way it has come to honour its legacy. This year marks the production’s milestone 15th edition, and two principal dancers from Montreal’s Les Grands Ballets Canadiens—Maude Sabourin and Felixovich Morante—will tour to Vancouver to perform the lead roles of Clara and the Cavalier Prince, respectively.
Chan Hon Goh, artistic director of Goh Ballet and executive producer of The Nutcracker, tells Stir that for her academy’s young dancers, training and performing alongside accomplished artists like Sabourin and Morante plays a pivotal role in cementing their career goals. Adding to that inspiration is the fact that many of the costumes worn in The Nutcracker have been preserved from the original production, and still bear the name labels of the artists who wore them over the years.
“For example, you might be wearing Yoshiko [Kamikusa]’s tutu,” Goh explains. “Now she’s a principal dancer with the Indianapolis Ballet, but she was a Snowflake in the first show of The Nutcracker, So it’s sentimental things like that, that are like, ‘Wow!’. I think that really adds to the excitement.”
The studio was abuzz with excited energy during the preview as dancers performed excerpts of the choreography by Emmy Award–winning ballet artist Anna-Marie Holmes. It gave a sense of both the energy and logistical demands of the production, which lands at the Queen Elizabeth Theatre from December 18 to 21.
Little lambs in fleecey white jumpsuits with pink bows garnered smiles and affectionate remarks from folks at the preview as they hopped and scampered around the studio, a fun balance to the talented teenage artists performing more challenging roles. The event opened with the “Chocolate (Spanish Dance)” scene, helmed by a soloist displaying strong arm lines and confident turns, outfitted in a Romantic tutu with layers of black tulle and red trim; elsewhere, a peek at “Waltz of the Flowers” showed polished unison from a big group of dancers.
“It’s such a feel-good production,” Goh says. “There’s something in it for everybody. You can identify with the youngest cast member who’s a little mouse, and seeing them squeaking across the stage or picking up the cheese, that’s delighting someone in the audience. And then if you’re a super balletomane—so you’re a top fan of dance and you’ve seen a lot of ballet—well, you can come and see the new guest artists that we bring in, or the soloists that we’ve promoted.”
Goh Ballet’s The Nutcracker. Photo by David Cooper
GOH’S FATHER founded Goh Ballet in 1978, and she joined the academy’s creative team in the summer of 2009 after retiring from her longtime role as principal dancer with the National Ballet of Canada. That same fall marked Goh Ballet’s first Nutcracker, and the following year, Goh took over the academy’s artistic directorship from her father.
Throughout the time the company has been producing the classic holiday show, three engagement proposals have occurred backstage. In one case, two musicians had met while playing in the orchestra for Goh’s Nutcracker years prior. (It’s the only production of the ballet here in Vancouver to feature Tchaikovsky’s live score, performed by members of the Vancouver Opera Orchestra.)
So over the last decade and a half, has producing the show gotten any easier for Goh?
“It has not gotten any easier at all,” she says with a grin. “In fact, I have to say now that we kind of know what we’re doing, it’s gotten even more complicated because we keep wanting to raise the bar. We have some high expectations to meet, and we want to aim for that highest artistic calibre and production quality.”
This year, for instance, she’s expanded on the “Peppermint” divertissement, which is normally between Clara and her Prince, to include some of Goh’s talented young dancers. Ultimately, she says, keeping things fresh while staying true to many elements, like the beautiful score and timeless story, is what has kept audiences coming back.
“It’s a familiarity and it’s a sense of nostalgia,” Goh says. “When we started the show 15 years ago, we were really hoping to tag the show as a classical tradition or a Vancouver tradition, I should say. And I’m really proud to say that we’ve built a tradition here around our show.” 
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