The whole nut.

The Arabian snake went out of control and beat the dancer off the stage." "The Rat King threw a temper tantrum, and the understudy, secretly rehearsing in a studio, almost beheaded a mouse." "The swastika flag didn't appear in the `Waltz of the Flowers.'"

Above are some of the more surprising and puzzling responses in this year's Dance Magazine Nutcracker Survey to questions about technical glitches. In celebration of the tradition of Nutcracker Dance Magazine surveyed dance companies and school in the U.S. and abroad aboutcompanies many different aspects of their productions. More than 200 companies and schools responded from all over the globe--Hong Kong to Peoria, Lisbon to Bogota--and ranged from small-budget productions with a few dancers giving two or three performances to New York City Ballet's 45-performance season to an audience of over 100,000.

The sheer numbers are astounding: Last year alone 20,926 dancers gave 2,408 performances. With so many dancers in so many performances, faux pas are inescapable and the survey responses demonstrate that human foibles are as much a part of Nutcracker as the "Waltz of the Flowers."

THE PARTY

The ballet opens with a Christmas eve party scene at theStahlbaum's house. Most of the partygoers are children, whose onstage antics are not always part of the choreography. While. most young dancers are consummate professionals onstage, others have added spice to the party by chewing gum and blowing bubbles, giggling, throwing up, picking their noses, losing their bloomers, waving to the audience, forgetting the steps, putting itching powder in each other's costumes, or falling asleep onstage. The children are not the only culprits, however. In McGuire Ballet Company's production in Glens Falls, New York, the mayor, making a cameo appearance as the grandfather, was so busy chatting offstage that he completely missed his cue.

Drosselmeyer arrives fashionably late to the party, bearing the Nutcracker, which siblings Clara (sometimes Marie) and Fritz fight over. Drosselmeyer also occasionally brings animals onstage, often with disastrous results: In a New Jersey Ballet production the dancer's pet dog followed him onstage, and in BalletMet's production Drosselmeyer intentionally carried a pet duck onstage.

The duck took one look at the orchestra pit, waddled over, and jumped in. The pit is apparently attractive to the avian set; Atlanta Ballet also tells of live doves from their production flying into the orchestra. Royal Swedish Ballet uses a poodle in the first act which "has a will of its own," and three of the companies that use horses told of their relieving themselves onstage.

Although in only 18% of the productions is Drosselmeyer meant to be scary, he is always enigmatic and, apparently, somewhat difficult to define. Different companies described him as: absent-minded, aweinspiring, bald, benign, mice, portrayed either by small children or by remote-control gadgetry (the second most likely prop to fall into the orchestra pit) scurry around the room. Bigger rats emerge, sporting red pointe shoes in the Swedish Ballet version, and Rollerblades in Ballet Arts Minnesota's production. Flat shoes are no guarantee of stability--in a Ballet de Santiago, Chile, performance, one rat tripped as they all exited to the same wing, and the ensuing domino effect caused chaos in the snow scene. The grandfather clock, which ominously strikes twelve midway through this scene, seems to have a magnetic attraction for Drosselmeyer--in five different productions it has fallen on the mysterious magician.

The Christmas tree is supposed to grow, but not all stagehands have green thumbs, and stunted tree growth is the most common technical snafu. Twenty-eight companies confessed to tree troubles, with a high percentage reporting collapsing trees which coincidentally fell in sync with an appropriate crescendo in the music. Pacific North west Ballet, faced with a growth problem with a brand-new tree, turned to Boeing Corporation to develop a motor to lift the new turbo-tree, which has successfully flown ever since. Maryland Regional Ballet's Clara watched in amazement as the tree continued to grow--off the floor. Huntsville Ballet Company also reported that its "flying" Drosselmeyer hit the tree.

The flashpot that goes off with the soldiers' cannon can also be a source of trouble, either by not going off at all or by setting other items on fire--including, but not limited to a party scene couch, Christmas gifts, the stage curtain, Drosselmeyer's wig, and a dancer's leg. In a LakeCities Ballet production, an overloaded cannon caused a piece of itself to go flying into the audience.

Who is that masked man? The Nutcracker appears, transformed into a life-size doll, usually with a mask. The mask, which weighs an average of just four pounds, contributes to the onstage chaos by making visibility difficult, and many a mouse has lost its tail by having a disoriented Nutcracker step on it. A small number of companies use hockey masks for the base of the mask of their Nutcracker, perhaps to subtly hint at the mouse carnage to come, a la Jason in Friday the 13th.

The valiant Nutcracker is pitted against the evil and often multiheaded Rat (or Mouse) King (or Queen), who is distracted and killed (99% of the time) after being hit by Clara's slipper, the most common object to go flying into the orchestra pit. Rat Kings average 1.9 heads, with a total of 349 Rat King heads in all of the productions surveyed. An audience favorite, his death is humorously enacted in 82% of the productions. In the Vineland Regional Dance Company performance, after his sword broke, the Nutcracker had to resort to strangling his furry opponent with his bare hands. The soldiers in a Ballet Rio de Janeiro performance had to kill the Rat King themselves when the Nutcracker failed to appear onstage. An actual mouse, clearly disturbed by the slaughter of his onstage brethren, tumbled from a catwalk to the stage during a Charleston Ballet. performance.

In at least two politically correct productions, the Rat King and the Nutcracker negotiate and end their war peacefully, and in Medford Civic Ballet's performance he is only dazed and wounded. In BalletMet's production the Rat King wins, and the second act is spent trying to distract the mice so as to escape from their lair. In one undoubtedly interesting performance of Bravo! Repertory Dance Theatre, the music skipped backwards, and the Rat King was instantly reincarnated.

THE SHOW

The snow scene, which follows the battle, is a lovely excuse for a whitetutu corps de ballet scene, only tenuously connected to the story line. An average of twenty-four pounds of paper or plastic snow, which has a nasty habit of getting stuck in dancers' hair, noses, mouths, ears, costumes, and even dance bags, falls on each production and, not surprisingly, is another source of technical consternation. Ten percent of the productions reported the occurrence of a blizzard onstage, caused by the entire contents of the snow bag falling at once. "One girl was slightly buried in dress rehearsal," says Ballet bewitching, charming, childlike, comical, dramatic, eccentric, extravagant, funny, gentle, grand, gruff, hypnotic, imposing, intimidating, inventive, kooky, large, looming, magical, mysterious, mystical, odd, old, powerful, rich, scary, sinister, tricky, ugly, well-liked, I and resembling I Zorro.

THE BATTLE

Clara comes downstairs to the darkened living room after the party to check on her beloved Nutcracker, and the chaotic and pyrotechnic-laden battle scene begins. Little Metropolitano de Medellin from Colombia. Another company director noted that the visual effect of the excess snow whirling off the snow queen as she pirouetted was quite beautiful. Fort Worth Dallas Ballet tells of Frank the flyman who is now known as Frankie Avalanche after having pulled the wrong line attached to the snow bag. When BalletMet's party scene chandelier appeared during the snow scene, the flyman panicked and pulled lines that were on the floor between the legs of the stage manager, lifting her several feet into the air.

By the end of a long run, miscellaneous items start to fall with the snow, such as earrings, a stray baseball cap, or even a ketchup packet from a stage crew member who has eaten a preperformance hamburger in the flies. Two separate companies reported large snow machines falling from above the stage, but fortunately no one was injured. Problems also stem from unexpected weather, both inside and outside of the theater. In both Ballet Theatre of Boston and Lafayette Ballet Company's productions a leak in the ceiling was the cause of rain in the party scene. Les Grands Ballets Canadiens reported fake snow falling in the battle scene, and in an interesting plot twist, the audience believed it to be rat poison. Perhaps owing to its tropical locale, Sarasota Ballet boasts that the fake snow in its production also falls on the audience.

Most productions utilize dry ice which, if allowed to condense, makes the stage very slippery, resulting in "falling snowflakes." Out-of-control fog has obscured the dancers from the audience, the Nutcracker from his sword, and the musicians in the pit from their music. Nouveau Chamber Ballet told of condensed foe in the second act causing the Sugar Plum Fairy to slip and skid across the stage on her backside, crash into a wooden set of clouds, and hop up right on time to hail the dance of Spanish coffee. Ole!

THE LAND OF THE SWEETS

The second act finds Clara and the Nutcracker in the Land of Sweets, amidst more hijinks. The prologue at the beginning of Act 2, used in 72% of the productions, often is used as a dance by young angels tiptoeing around the stage, trying not to trip over their hoop skirts. Hoop skirts are often troublesome. When one dancer from San Francisco Dance Theatre, outfitted as a Christmas tree in hoop skirts, tripped noticeably in the second-act prologue, an audience wag was prompted to call out "Timber!"

Other productions use the second-act prologue to mark the arrival of Clara and her Prince in the land of the sweets. In three separate productions she travels through a lemonade sea, and, in the Suburban Dance Force's version, Clara takes a surfing safari to the accompaniment of the song "Wipeout." In other productions, her arrival often involves flying apparatus including walnut boats, hot-air balloons, sleighs, a unicorn, or an owl. Columbia City Ballet's Clara arrives on a cloud, which in one performance became a rain cloud when the young heroine forgot to use the facilities during the intermission.

Both before and after intermission, the musicians would do well to wear hard hats, judging by the number of items that go flying into the pit. A partial inventory from the survey includes: several Nutcracker heads and miscellaneous Nutcracker body parts, one Rat King, one pitchfork. three snow balls, giant pieces of fake cheese, several reed pipes, Miami City Ballet Artistic Director Edward Villella's daughter Christa (in dress rehearsal), dolls, a giant bow from a present, one mouse, one Rat King sword, a Candy Cane hoop, several fake buns, one Russian dancer, a Russian boot, one teenager, a milkmaid doll's pail, two Sugar Plum Fairy wands, and an electric mouse, which landed in the tuba.

Perhaps because of the sensual music, the Arabian dancer has an astonishing penchant for losing her pants, bikini top, and/or the beading on her costume while onstage. Ten companies reported such exposure, and in the Chesapeake Ballet Company production, the dancer continued unaware that she had lost her pants. In a Portland Ballet performance the Arabian soloist stepped on her partner's pants, ripped them seam to seam, and exposed his dance belt. In another production when a set flew, it caught the Arabian soloist by the hair.

Mother Ginger appears in 79% of the productions, a.k.a. Mother Buffoon, Coco the Clown, Madame Babushka, Mother Gigogne, Ginger Mama, Madame Bonbon, and Mama Pinata. She has an average of 9.42 children, and all totaled, 1,423 children scamper around Mother Gingers each year among the companies surveyed. Surprisingly, despite her stilts, Mother Ginger has only toppled in 17% of the productions (with an additional 6% of the companies confessing to near misses). Her descent to earth is more commonly a slow collapse than a sudden faceplant. In a bit of Nutcracker gender-bending, 59% of the time Mother Ginger is really a man, 13% of the time she is played by either a man or a woman, and Benicia Ballet Theater's response to our query regarding the gender of its Mother Ginger was "Not sure."

Nervous gingersnaps awaiting their stage debuts occasionally throw up under the skirt, and many a stage crew member has had to scurry under the skirt to clean up. In Jataba Dance Troupe's production, Mother Ginger believed all of the "cookies" were out of her skirt, and began to dance; two who had been trapped underneath tumbled out. Despite their tears, they valiantly finished the dance. Other little hams-in-training choose not to return under the skirt or exit at the end of the dance, choosing instead to clap or wave to the audience.

Whereas the Snow Queen has a cavalier in 77% of the productions, the Dewdrop Fairy, (a.k.a. Butterfly, Rose, Azalea Fairy, Flower Fairy) is single 79% of the time. She is joined by frogs in Ballet Long Island's production, and in a Boston Dance Company performance, Mother Ginger was inadvertently stuck onstage, and the flowers had to waltz around her. The most puzzling response to the survey was Ballet of the Pfalztheater's report of the recalcitrant swastika flag in the "Waltz of the Flowers." The necessity of this item is explained by Pfalztheater's version of the story, which is about an older Clara looking back at her childhood during the war.

Even the elegant grand pas de deux is not foolproof. In one especially uncomfortable-sounding incident in a Loudon Ballet company performance, the tiara of the Sugar Plum Fairy became caught on her tutu, backwards, and she couldn't stand up until her cavalier gallantly unfastened her. Sacramento Ballet's Sugar Plum tiara became hooked on her partner's sleeve, and Ithaca Ballet's leading couple blanked at the same time and had to improvise until they could pick up the steps again. In a Pacific Northwest Ballet performance, the Prince lifted Clara, she fell over his head, and he fell on top of her. Fortunately, neither was hurt.

Despite all of the blunders and bloopers, the Nutcracker tradition continues, and for every mistake there are countless inspired performances. After all, the ballet is about love and a child's view of Christmas, and the foibles and faux pas make it only more warm and human.

RELATED ARTICLE: NUT FACTS

BIG NUT NUMBERS                          AVERAGE         TOTAL
Number of dancers in cast                    109        20,926
children in cast                              73        13,548

Audience attendance, entire run           16,788     2,686,068
(81 % of companies responding):

1995 box office receipts
(63% of companies responding)            376,123   $46,639,224

Number of performances
at home                                        9         1,707
on tour                                        4           701

Number of different cities
visited                                        3           579

Cost of shoes                             $6,595      $863,884

Yearly box office receipts from
Nutcracker                                                 63%
Yearly budget derived from
Nutcracker revenue                                         40%

TECHNICAL NUT NUMBERS                    AVERAGE         TOTAL
AVERAGE Starting height of tree               9'        1,441'
Final height of tree                         24'        3,869'
Number of Mouse King heads                  1.9           349
Weight of Nutcracker mask                 4 lbs.      526 lbs.
Clara's costume change                 1.69 lbs.      263 min.
Amount of fake snow                    24.4 lbs.    3,001 lbs.
Number of Mother Ginger's kids              9.42        1,423
Age of dancer playing Clara            13.8 yrs.
Age of current production              11.1 yrs.

DANCER'S NUT NUMBERS
Average roles per dancer, per performance          2.6
Most roles by one dancer per performance           11
Companies that pay
  at least some of the adults                      64%
  children                                          6%
  guest artists                                    67%
Companies that provide
  warm-up class                                    89%
  shoes                                            38%
Companies that hold audition
  for adults                                       50%
  for children                                     81%