“Swingin’ Nutcracker à la Ellington featuring Step Afrika!” premieres with the Baltimore Symphony Orchestra

In 1960, Duke Ellington and composing partner Billy Strayhorn put together their version of “The Nutcracker Suite,” a jazz-informed take on “The Nutcracker” that both builds on the compositions and fights with it a little. It is a bold refix of a Christmas classic with big band style expanding on the symphonic moves of the original, and from December 9 – 11, 2016, Step Afrika! joined the Baltimore Symphony for Swingin’ Nutcracker à la Ellington featuring Step Afrika!.

Concert Review: ‘Swingin’ Nutcracker à la Ellington featuring Step Afrika!’ by Baltimore Symphony Orchestra

Written by Liz Ruth-Brinegaron for the MD Theatre Guide, December 13, 2016

Step Afrika! promises in the BSO program notes to deliver a high energy performance and they do not disappoint. From the moment that the dancers take the stage in the opening party sequence of the Nutcracker, each performer communicated great energy and excitement to the audience, whether they were being featured in a bit or whether they were a supporting background character, and the intensity continued throughout the entire show. I never felt anyone giving less than their all to the dance and the engagement of the background party guests and later, of the nightclub patrons in the Land of Sweets, kept me riveted on the featured dancers of each number and made me feel that I was a fly on the wall of an amazing party instead of an audience member at the Meyerhoff.

…this was a bold creative venture into new territory for the BSO and the concept itself is solid and has a lot of potential. The BSO musicians are some of the finest anywhere, the dancing by Step Afrika! is amazing, the costumes and adjustments to the storyline were clever and enjoyable, and with some tweaking of the choreography on just a few numbers to better fit the orchestrations, with an adjustment to the number of instrumentalists, and with the consultation of a good sound engineer and perhaps some theatrical advisers to assist with staging, along with exploring the possibility of a more technically suitable venue, I think that the BSO’s “Swingin’ Nutcracker à la Ellington featuring Step Afrika!” can easily become an annual holiday treasure to the point of enjoying even longer runs so that more people can enjoy the jazzy music and brilliant dancing from this exciting new twist on the ever-popular Nutcracker ballet.”

VIEW THE 2016 REVIEW HERE