Scoot over, fall, it is time for some merry cheer! The beloved holiday classic, “The Nutcracker,” has been dazzling audiences since 1954. Dancer, choreographer and American Contemporary Ballet founder, Lincoln Jones, attempts to create a new twist on the most popular ballet in the country, right in the heart of Los Angeles. Similar to how the success of “The Nutcracker” took time and dedication, Jones’ journey in the dance world holds a resilient message to anyone pursuing a dream.
Unwrap an early Christmas experience with Jones as he spoke with BruinLife’s Jenna Forss before his dancers take the stage for the first performance on Nov 29.
This interview has been edited for length and clarity.
BruinLife: I understand that you began dancing at age 19, which is later than the majority of people in ballet. What made you want to take that initial class? What was your journey like entering that world at age 19?
Lincoln Jones: I was in college and… I saw that I could take it as an elective. I was in theater and I had someone who told me that I had to learn to dance. He said ‘Get in ballet five times a day over the summer,’ and so I did. Then I met someone who said, ‘You can do this professionally’… I just hadn’t been in it as a child and so I never thought it was a world that I could be part of. Then when it opened, I just jumped into it.
BL: Were there any challenges that you faced getting into ballet later in life?
LJ: The reason it takes… 10 years to develop a dancer is because you’re layering muscle memory on muscle memory… every single part of the body in ballet is really having to do something specific at every moment and so it’s not something you can really jump into at 20. I never, definitely, never achieved what I wanted to achieve as a dancer because of that. But I was able to learn enough to understand it, enough so that I could do it creatively, which is really more my thing anyway.
BL: Since you did not feel like you reached your full potential as a dancer, was that what inspired you to transition to a choreographer, to eventually founding your own company?
LJ: When I was in theater, I was doing performance and there was an aspect of performance I liked, but I think I was always a little bit more creatively minded than that… so it was a natural instinct for me to take whatever I was working with and make it into something. Music always made pictures for me, in my mind and so I think it was inevitable… I would have done that, even whether it’s cinematic pictures or dance pictures.
BL: What is your creative process as a choreographer? I understand that you alter your choreography based on the dancer can you walk me through that process as well?
LJ: So in terms of that process… every dancer is not just unique, but like quite different in their abilities and their affinities. And so I think one…of the most important jobs that I have, is trying to get as good as I can at making choreography to suit them… I think a good analogy is being… both the designer of the clothes and a tailor… the clothes are not going to look good if they are not tailored for the person.
BL: In your bio for the company is mentions that you have educational programs to “bring audiences further inside the art” can you elaborate more on those?
LJ: One of the ways to get the most out of art is to engage with it, intellectually, socially and viscerally…viscerally would be the performances. Socially would be having an experience around art, where, once you’ve had an experience that moves you…share it with other people, perhaps other people you don’t know and we provide opportunities for that. The third way is intellectually and you know what we now think of as the classical arts. At the time when those were more pervasive, they are stronger in culture. There was really much more practical engagement with them. I think that part of what I want to do is have people understand ballet the same way…I think that everyone’s lives will be a lot better when they engage with this art in that way.
BL: “The Nutcracker” holds a lot of memories for both dancers and non-dancers. How does this factor in your reinvention of it and what do you want the audience to take away from this performance?
LJ: What’s at the heart of “The Nutcracker” is the music, really and this idea of a holiday… I’m really into holidays…I think there’s something to the cycle of the year and emphasizing these sorts of feelings, emotions, idea. “The Nutcracker,” when it first premiered, was not a success in Russia; it was a flop, but it really became a success in America with George Balanchine’s production at the New York City Ballet. For me, Christmas was always very magical as a kid and it had a lot to do with surprise, family and wonder…I wanted to create that experience for the audience and for myself. In the traditional “Nutcracker,” you are watching someone have a dream and my idea was, I wanted to put the audience in the first person. Why watch something at a distance when you can be inside of it?
BL: What makes the audience a part of this dream?
LJ: The main character in a traditional “Nutcracker,” goes through a journey of hope and excitement, it’s orientation and fear and then awe and wonder… it was about creating that for the audience itself. You’re…doing things that they’re not expecting, perhaps really not expecting.
BL: What would you tell other aspiring artists attempting to achieve their goals?
LJ: Learn everything you can about the craft through the people who have done it at the highest level in your particular field. Not to say…you can go talk to Michael Angelo, but study him.
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Featured Image Courtesy of Anastasia Petukhova
