Candy Cane

Music The Nutcracker (1892) by Peter Ilyitch Tschaikovsky

Choreography by George Balanchine (1954)

Each winter kicks off the holiday season along with the annual production of George Balanchine’s The Nutcracker. This is a ballet that brings together all who make ballet possible at NYCB. It involves not just the cast in its entirety, but the dancers have an opportunity to work with scores of young students from the School of American Ballet. This glittering production of The Nutcracker is beloved by the public and is, for many, a staple of the holiday season. In 2013 it was a privilege to have the New York City Ballet choose to use Candy Cane as their holiday card.

In an effort to capture the essence of the design of this costume, I pleated the stripes of pink and olive so that when I positioned the piece in the visible twist, the color balance of white, olive, and pink was fairly equal. It felt like the treatment pulled out the Candy Cane-ness in its entirety. I was also mindful of the bells, as they are a favorite memento of the children who perform in The Nutcracker. I was told that pulling a bell from a costume or tucking away a piece of foam cheese was a common tactic to secure a memento from their time onstage as part of the Nutcracker.

The Dickensian thieving is as charming to me as it must be annoying to the Wardrobe Mistress.