New York Notebook

Clara Comes in Two Sizes

Here’s what we know about the new Nutcracker that Alexei Ratmansky is making for American Ballet Theatre: The leads, on different nights, include Gillian Murphy and David Hallberg, Veronika Part and Marcelo Gomes, and Paloma Herrera and Cory Stearns. There is no traditional Sugar Plum pas de deux, but there is an adult Clara in addition to the child Clara. A total of 48 children in two casts, drawn mostly from ABT’s JKO School, are learning roles in both the first and second acts. Oh, and we hear, unofficially, that the children will get to act like real kids onstage. The production premieres at Brooklyn Academy of Music Dec. 23–Jan. 2, with preview shows Dec. 22 and Dec. 23 matinee. See www.abt.org. —Wendy Perron

Brazen Busking

There’s no one like Aszure Barton. Her dances are strange, dreamy, transgressive—sometimes even creepy. But you cannot stop looking. In Busk, which comes to the Baryshnikov Arts Center this month, the pelvis pushes up into the air, fingertips claw the floor, and a Pierrot figure mimes hanging himself. Barton loves sending her dancers into fierce spine undulations. Russian composer Lev Ljova Zhurbin plays a heart-wringing violin (on tape) that washes the dance in melancholy. Dec. 17–18. www.bacnyc.org. —W. P.

A Flock of Trocks

It’s not Nutcracker, it’s not A Christmas Carol, it’s the Trocks! They’re just as fun and festive as any other holiday fare, but you gotta have a special place in your heart for hairy chests popping out of tutu bodices. Les Ballets Trockadero de Monte Carlo are bringing their naughty-and-nice mix of classical (Les Sylphides, Swan Lake, Raymonda’s Wedding) and contemporary (Patterns in Space, choreographed “after the style of Merce Cunningham”) to the Joyce, Dec. 14–Jan. 2. See www.joyce.org. —W. P.

Catherine Hurlin and Philip Perez in ABT’s
The Nutcracker. Photo by Fabrizio Ferri, courtesy ABT.