Peach Satin Nutcracker

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.

The focal point of this image is the lovely tear in the silk bodice that reveals a lighter yellow lining. I tried to position the garment in such a way as to create a lyricism between the movement of the rip that resounds out to larger movement of the garment as a whole. The appliqué patches of tulle covered in rhinestone is not doubt a way to buttress the weight of the gems so that the drape of the tulle tutu remains unencumbered by their addition. The purely mechanical decision to do that adds a lovely aspect to the piece up close. The thread is loose to avoid snags in the delicate fabric and creates sweet little shapes while holding the appliqué in place.