For many, seeing “George Balanchine’s The Nutcracker” is a tradition around the holidays. The ballet premiered in 1954, and for the first time, a black ballerina, 11-year-old Charlotte Nebres, will play the lead.
The decision to cast Charlotte had nothing to do with the color of her skin, but more to do with her exceptional talent, according to Dena Abergel, the children’s ballet master at New York City Ballet.
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"When I'm looking for someone who can do Marie, I'm looking for someone primarily who has an ability to act on stage and to convey a story," Abergel told the New York Times. "... It has to be someone who can command the stage and who has enough confidence and spontaneity to handle whatever comes her way."
Charlotte was a student at the School of American Ballet, where the students often end up dancing in the New York City Ballet. Marie’s role isn’t the only one breaking tradition, the cast features much more diversity than in years past, and Abergel says it’s because of the school’s efforts to be more diverse.
“Because I have the diversity of students and the pool to choose from that is diverse, some of those students will end up being the leads and it just happened to work out without my even realizing it that all four were of some mixed diversity,” Abergel said. “And that’s just mirroring what’s happening in New York City and around the world.”
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CNN reported that when Charlotte's mother told her she was the first black Marie, the young ballet dancer simply replied, "Wow. that seems a little late."
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