The Dance Historian Is In: Nicole Duffy on Robert Joffrey’s The Nutcracker

Address:

New York Public Library for the Performing Arts—Bruno Walter Auditorium
Enter via 111 Amsterdam Ave. between West 64th and 65th Street New York, NY 10023-7498

Event:

Premiering in 1987, Robert Joffrey’s The Nutcracker adopted elements of the classical 19th-century original by Lev Ivanov and Marius Petipa and made it distinctly American, setting the narrative in an American household, complete with vintage toys from Joffrey’s own collection. For this month’s The Dance Historian Is In, former Joffrey Ballet dancer Nicole Duffy speaks about Joffrey’s take on the holiday classic The Nutcracker. Having danced in Robert Joffrey’s production for many years, Duffy shares her experiences on the stage along with photos and video from the Jerome Robbins Dance Division.

For more than 10 years, The Dance Historian Is In at the Library for the Performing Arts has highlighted a diverse range of dancers and choreographers across history. This series began when archivist and historian David Vaughan started volunteering at the Jerome Robbins Dance Division. Vaughan began a monthly program showing his favorite dance films from the Division’s extensive collection, through which he unearthed many treasures, and helped acquire even more. Vaughan continued the series until the end of his life. Today, we honor his memory and work by inviting dance historians from all over the world each month to carry on the tradition of highlighting dance history through the Dance Division’s moving image collection.

Photo Credit: Joffrey with clockwise from top: Kim Sagami, Deborah Dawn, Julie Janus, Victoria Pasquale, Elizabeth Parkinson. Photograph by Herbert Migdoll © Joffrey Ballet. Jerome Robbins Dance Division.

This event will take place online via Zoom as well as in person at The Library for the Performing Arts.