Review: The Watchmaker's Song by Ventana Ballet
by David Glen Robinson

Austin is strewn with treasures of all kinds. The arts are especially rich, with crowds of skilled artists who offer their wealth to the citizenry for the paltry price of a ticket. One such atelier of treasure and magic is home to Ventana Ballet and Red Nightfall Dance Theatre, who have co-produced The Watchmaker’s Song, their holiday show, now in its seventh iteration. The show varies in its content and for that reason it remains fresh year after year. The 2024 edition did not disappoint in any particular.

 

 

The Watchmaker’s Song is an immersive, alternative rendition of Tchaikovsky’s The Nutcracker Suite, written and premiered in 1892, and since become North America’s favorite holiday show and celebration. Act I takes place on Christmas Eve under the Christmas tree in the home of young Clara. Act II comprises the collected dreams of Clara as she sleeps after midnight. Dorothy O’Shea Overbey of Red Nightfall Dance Theatre wrote her own adaptation of the ballet and choreographed it. Many of her changes involve the structure of the performance. The Nutcracker has long been criticized for practicing cultural appropriation in its arranging of traditional dances, such as those of Arabia, India, and the Far East, staged in its second act. Overbey busts the charges wide open with her yearly invitation to practitioners of diverse ethnic dances by members of those cultures themselves. They are the artists demonstrating their works in the second act.

 

The musical arranging for the show is complex. Overbey chose Duke Ellington’s and Billy Strayhorn’s jazz interpretation of Tchaikovsky’s score for most of Act I, although Tchaikovsky’s classical music comes back at various points. Jazz accompanying contemporary ballet is a brilliant combination, and the music drives Overbey’s Act I into a work of near-unique beauty and inspiration, all in a family-oriented dance fairy tale. It is toney, accessible, and it verges on the sublime. 

 

Navaji David Nava displayed his mastery of dance in his performance as the Watchmaker, a wizardlike character who exists across time and controls temporality with his magic watch. Nava’s perfection of ballet technique was all he needed to establish the masterful character, although his colorful cloaked costume heightened the mystery and fantasy. With all this added value on such a singular character, how could one not anoint Nava as the Master of Ceremonies of the entire show? That meta performance was also clear, well enunciated, and masterful.

 

Tikiri Shapiro also applied exquisite skill to her role as the darker, witchlike character Dame Mouserink. Shapiro, fabulous in costume and styling, led the entire cast in telling the Act One story with emotionality and movement sans spoken lines. Hers was pure acting, layered on flawless and disciplined contemporary ballet technique. Accenting it all were sharply brilliant ensemble passages that started instantly on invisible cues and sometimes ended with freeze-frame stops as the Watchmaker “adjusted” time for the characters. These bits showcased perfect, seemingly impossible balances (except for a few catch steps) and athletic lifts that elicited applause from the ballet-savvy outdoor audience. Was it difficult? Of course, but it looked and felt as easy as a dream before waking.

 

Kanami Nakabayashi as Clara and Aidan De Witt as the young Nutcracker told of their romance even more deeply with the unmistakable facial gestures of lovers. They danced multiple pas de deux choreographed beautifully by Dorothy O’Shea Overbey. Duets are the staples of ballet, and Ventana Ballet’s are delicate yet bold contributions to the inventory of all such. The Act I dance swept back and forth across the stage marley like the tides, splashing into the coves and tidal pools of the party at Clara’s house (and what a house!). The skilled ensemble of the Act I party on the night this reviewer attended included Jane Schwartz as Princess Purlipat, Josh Martinez, Mia Moi, Elaine Fields, Kayla Hoover, Emily Lofton, Elizabeth Coleman, and Caroline Jones as the Snow Queen. Not all company members performed at every performance, so their worthy contributions cannot be described or fully credited here, with apologies. At the end of Act I, the audience was invited into the Neill-Cochran House for the culturally diverse dance demonstrations of Act II.

 

Act II played in the bedrooms, parlors, and back conference room of the Neill-Cochran House. The invited set of performances and demonstrations were Argentinian Tango performed by Esquina Tango, Indian Bharatanatyam performed by Temple of Fine Arts in Austin, Spanish Flamenco performed by Stephanie Keeton, and Egyptian Bellydance demonstrated by Rania Kandil. Chinese Traditional Dance with Mia Dedear and the tap dance performances of Movin’ Melvin Brown were not performed on the night this reviewer attended. All the live performances were entertaining and seemed well enjoyed by the audiences who lined the walls of the rooms to observe the performances in the centers.

 

Mother Ginger always climaxes any Nutcracker show, and Ventana Ballet/Red Nightfall Dance Theatre have a spectacular one in drag performer Colleen DeForrest. Extremely personable, DeForrest gave a rocking lip synched performance in the meeting room, accompanied by the two dolls (that was their credit on the online programme), Emily Lofton and Elizabeth Coleman. Mother Ginger always precedes the finale and the Dance of the Sugar Plum Fairy and the Snow Queen. A.J. Garcia-Rameau owns the Sugar Plum Fairy and her dance, perfectly executed. She was joined by Caroline Jones as the Snow Queen and the return of Tchaikovsky’s sugar-glazed, confectionary music.

 

 

Their duet effectively ended the show, followed by the traditional lengthy, extended ballet curtain call. This event lay slightly at variance from years past because Dorothy O’Shea Overbey joined the curtain call on crutches, having had orthopedic surgery within the last month. The audience’s appreciation for the writer, director, and choreographer of The Watchmaker’s Song was heartfelt, loud, and long.

 

A.J. Garcia-Rameau’s executive efforts in producing The Watchmaker’s Song added greatly to the quality of the production, notably in the arrangement to mount the show in the Neill-Cochran House and Museum. The facility is an antebellum mansion built by the slaves of an early pioneer family who grew rich in plantation cotton farming. The institution now is open to community events, and The Watchmaker’s Song is one that simply envelops the entire house and grounds in throwback Victorian fantasies of ballet and music. The yearly event, like its big sister, Ballet Austin’s The Nutcracker Suite, is not to be missed. 

 

Ventana Ballet and Red Nightfall Dance Theatre are companion dance incubators and producers. They add significantly to the Austin arts scene, languishing in its lack of financial energy but still filled with its treasures.  These two vibrant companies, among others, continue to offer light and inspiration to the community. Follow them, support them, believe.

 

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The Watchmaker's Song
by Ventana Ballet artists
Ventana Ballet

December 12 - 21, 2024

Neil - Cochrane House, Austin