NYBB’s India Bradley makes historic debut in George Balanchine’s ‘The Nutcracker’

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On Sunday, December 10, New York City Ballet’s India Bradley swept onstage and into history as the first Black ballerina to dance Dewdrop, a major role in George Balanchine’s holiday favorite, “The Nutcracker.” Displaying a sublime mix of technical precision, mesmerizing musicality and charismatic self-assurance, Bradley danced the demanding role created for the choreographer’s wife, the late Tanaquil Le Clerq when the ballet premiered back in 1954. Designed to display Le Clerq’s technical versatility, the role requires a ballerina execute a fast-paced flurry of piques, balances, battement développés, pirouettes, and fouettes to Tchaikovsky’s score with style and grace. Bradley did just that. 

“We watched history being made,” said her mother, Judy, tears streaming down her cheeks as she went backstage clutching a bouquet of flowers, for the daughter she said started taking ballet when she was very young. “India loved to perform and she was very talented,” said the woman whose own career included dancing with the pioneer Katherine Dunham and the Ailey II company as well as singers Aretha Franklin and Anita Baker, and teaching Horton technique.  “At home, India would create a makeshift stage and dance for family and friends, then demand everyone clap.” On Dec. 10, clap they did, wildly, and without even being told. After that performance, family and friends clustered around to congratulate a teary-eyed India. NYCB Associate Artistic Director and former Principal Wendy Whelan also joined the excitement, posing for a picture or two with Bradley and her mom to commemorate this emotionally powerful moment.

“The Nutcracker,” Balanchine’s first evening-length story ballet for NYCB, is a dazzlingly entertaining work comprised of two acts, four scenes and a prologue with a history that involves Russian composer Tchaikovsky, famed ballet choreographers Marius Petipa and Lev Ivanov, German story-teller E.T.A. Hoffman’s 1816 tale “The Nutcracker and the Mouse King,” and an adaptation by Alexandre Dumas pere, the French writer of Afro-Caribbean ancestry who wrote “The Three Muskateers.” A popular Christmas production, this tale of the magical transformation of children’s Christmas Eve presents into fantastical characters has broad appeal. Audiences are captivated by the 14-foot tall Christmas tree that rises onstage to a towering 40 feet. They’re mesmerized by a toy Nutcracker that comes to life when everyone has gone to bed, except little Marie who is terrified by an army of  sword-wielding mice that the Nutcracker slays with the help of an army of toy soldiers. And, that’s only Act I. Magically, the Nutcracker transforms into a prince and, in Act II, leads Marie into an enchanted forest filled with dancing snowflakes, and then to the Land of Sweets where dancers portray everything from Coffee from Arabia, to Chinese Tea, Candy Canes, and Marzipan Shepherdesses and a Mother Ginger whose eight children magically appear from under her massive skirt. Then, there is Dewdrop who darts among the dancing flowers, dazzling us with her speed and grace before ceding the stage the ever-heralded Sugarplum Fairy and her Cavalier as the fairy tale ends with Marie and her prince making a classic Christmas exit by soaring overhead in a sleigh pulled by flying reindeer. 

In years past, “The Nutcracker’s casting would have required that Black and Brown children struggle to imagine themselves in its magic wonderland. Of course, in 1955, after Arthur Mitchell joined NYCB, during the height of the Civil Rights movement, they could see themselves as Coffee, the only role he danced in the ballet, albeit with commanding dignity. But, this year on Dec. 10, no mental somersaults were necessary.  Not only was there India Bradley’s dazzling Dewdrop darting about the stage with mesmerizing brilliance, but sprinkled throughout the various casts, whether among the children, the dancing flowers, acrobatic candy canes, gliding angels or delicate snowflakes, there seemed to be dancers of color everywhere. Afterwards, several Black audience members said they had to pinch themselves to make sure they weren’t dreaming. There was Black ballerina Olivia Boisson as one of the two lead Flowers (with Jacqueline Bologna). As snowflakes flitted across the stage in several groups of four, each group seemed to contain at least one Black ballerina. Pinch me. Of course, whether or not this was a glitch on our racially sensitive radar or a harbinger of things to come remains to be seen. Also, this is no reason to stop supporting beautiful Black holiday productions like the Debbie Allen Dance Academy’s “Hot Chocolate Nutcracker” in Los Angeles, California, or Atlanta, Georgia Ballethnic’s Urban Nutcracker, among others. After all, all representation matters. Still, the significance of this NYCB production and India Bradley’s debut as Dewdrop must be celebrated and supported as a significant step in the right direction by a major American ballet company as the artform continues to struggle to address as tradition of Eurocentric bias. 

Speaking with India and her mom after the history-making debut it was clear that, while both are ecstatic, they remain grounded. In fact, Bradly says that just before stepping out on stage, she was overwhelmed with emotion and remembers hearing a voice in her head demanding, “Open your eyes and get it together!” She says it was the voice of the late Arthur Mitchell whose fierce determination following the death of Rev. Martin Luther King created the Dance Theatre of Harlem, where dancer/teachers Andrea Long, Endolyn Taylor, Virginia Johnson, and Mitchell mentored her and the DTH pre-professional program prepared her so that when she decided to audition for NYCB’s School of American Ballet she’d be successful. Ever mindful of the proverbial shoulders she stands on, Bradley’s success seemed a little bittersweet when she recalled Black ballerinas who came before her, like Raven Wilkinson, Janet Collins, Debra Austin and Delores Brown, and experienced racism’s trials and tribulations. Then, too, there is Mitchell’s famous anecdote about his own 1950s NYCB debut and the audience member so shocked at the sight of a Black man appearing on stage partnering Tanaquil Le Clerq that he shouted, “My God, they’ve got a n***** in the company!” 

While , in the words of Bob Dylan, the times they are a-changin’ , Bradley pauses to put her success in perspective:  “I haven’t experienced half of what those who came  before me experienced. What they had to go through is so unfair,” and pausing she adds,  “I do know they would say they went through that so I and my generation could do what we’re doing now.”