THE NUTCRACKER

from The Good | Winter 2021 | Vol. 11

LILA M. ’23 Published in NY Times Anthology

The Nutcracker 2020 Virtual Production

BY MEGAN ADELL, TIFFANY CAUDILL, AND LEE WILHOITE

We knew well in advance we could not hold the annual CH Nutcracker on campus this year. So we developed a plan that would allow us to rehearse and film on campus, following health and safety protocols. Our dance floor would be set up outside. Dancers would be six feet apart and remain in small cohorts. Alas, as the case numbers increased and county guidelines changed, we had to pivot to a fully remote Nutcracker! We then came up with our new plan: send home flooring, costumes, and props to the dancers. Rework the choreography so that it could be done within the confines of a home. Teach the dancers how to record themselves.

The final video involved over 500 hours of editing and was viewed by 647 devices! In the end, we felt confident that we were able to feature and celebrate each dancer’s talent and hard work.

How did the dancers learn the choreography? The dancers learned their choreography through after-school rehearsals held on Zoom. We had originally hoped to rehearse and film on campus and based the choreography accordingly. But midway through the process, as case numbers worsened in LA and the County changed their guidelines, Ms. Wilhoite had to adjust and teach choreography that would work in homes. Props had to be carefully thought out and in some cases, we had to purchase multiple versions of the same prop. For example, in the scene where Fritz and Clara fight over the Nutcracker doll and Fritz accidentally breaks off its head, we had to buy two identical dolls. By doing so, each dancer could pretend to be pulling it back and forth so that it looked like they were fighting over the same doll.

How many locations did you shoot? • Costumes and dance flooring were distributed to each dancer so that they could film the final dance numbers from home.

Students used their living rooms, garages, backyards, friends’ or relatives’ homes, and a few used their dance studios.

• For the dancers “en pointe” we had sections of our professional grade sprung-floors delivered to their homes.

• For our seniors, we wanted to provide them with something special since they had committed so many years to this production, so a skeleton crew of one filmmaker and

Ms. Wilhoite went to their backyards to film.

How did the dancers film their pieces? The dancers used either their phone, laptop or another device and submitted their performance videos to a special Google folder.