BALLET / 2017-2018
WHIPPED CREAM
American Ballet Theatre
Kevin McKenzie, Artistic Director Choreography by Alexei Ratmansky Set and Costume Design by Mark Ryden Music by Richard Strauss with the Kennedy Center Opera House Orchestra
Daniil Simkin and Alexei Agoudine in Whipped Cream. Photo: Gene Schiavone.
So, What’s Going On?
Let’s time travel back to Vienna, Austria. It’s 1924 and the German composer Richard Strauss (1864–1949) has created the music and the libretto, or storyline, for a ballet set to premiere at the Vienna State Opera. Sadly for Maestro Strauss, the performance is not well-received. Truthfully…it is an utter failure. And so, his score is rarely heard again, and the ballet named Schlagobers (pronounced SHLAG-oh-bers) is forgotten.
Fast forward more than a century as choreographer Alexei Ratmansky comes across Strauss’s score and decides to create his version of the ballet with the same name. And that’s where the mystery about this ballet’s title is solved. “Schlagobors” is the Viennese word for whipped cream!
Hear Alexei Ratmansky discuss Whipped Cream and watch dancers perform segments of the ballet at:
A Sweet Storyline
Act I
The ballet begins in Vienna where “The Boy” and his friends have just received their first communion. To celebrate, they go to a confectioner’s shop full of delicious sweets. The Boy, who really LOVES whipped cream, eats so much that he becomes ill and has to be taken away.
After the children leave, the magical sweet shop comes alive. Suddenly, Marzipan archers, spear-wielding Sugarplums, and swashbuckling Gingerbread Men engage in military exercises. Meanwhile, Princess Tea Flower appears and is wooed by Prince Coffee, Prince Cocoa, and Don Zucchero, who all try to win her favor. Ultimately, the Princess chooses Prince Coffee for her partner.
As the Chef appears, mixing whipped cream in a bowl, the shop fades away to The Boy’s dream world where, not surprisingly, EVERYTHING is made of whipped cream.
Scene from Whipped Cream. Photo: Gene Schlavone.
Act II
Still recovering from too much whipped cream, The Boy wakes up to find himself in a dark and mysterious hospital room attended by a doctor and an army of nurses. The nurses give him medicine and then depart. In their absence, Princess Praline appears to help The Boy escape.
Alexei Agoudine in Whipped Cream. Photo: Gene Schiavone.
The Doctor has a headache and tries to relieve it with liquor, just as the bottles come to life. The nurses return only to realize that The Boy is gone. They find him and lead him back to bed. But then, the liquor bottles intervene and intoxicate the doctor and nurses. Fortunately, Princess Praline is able to free The Boy and take him back to her kingdom.
When they arrive there, creatures of all kinds are celebrating and The Boy is welcomed by Nicolo, the Master of Ceremonies. At last, the fantasy world that The Boy dreamed about has become his reality.
Who’s Who
The Boy, a young child fond of whipped cream Princess Tea Flower, a Princess in the confectioner’s shop Prince Cocoa, partner to Princess Tea Flower The Nurses who take care of Boy The Doctor in charge of Boy’s care Princess Praline, ruler of her fantastical kingdom Nicolo, Master of Ceremonies in the kingdom of Princess Praline
Sweet and Sinister
All paintings by Mark Ryden.
Contemporary artist Mark Ryden is highly recognized for his paintings which are a mixture of both sweet and sinister elements. His artwork, painted with incredible detail, frequently portrays innocent-looking children with larger-than life eyes. Although the children are often shown together with toys or cute animals, Ryden adds disturbing or surprising elements to his pictures that catch the viewer off guard, replacing innocence with an unsettling impression.
With that in mind, Ratmansky felt that Ryden would be the perfect collaborator for his ballet. Because the storyline of the ballet is very basic without many plot twists or turns, Ratmansky knew the set and costuming needed to be visually strong. And when he saw Ryden’s work, he felt there were similarities between their artistic approaches.
More so, both artists are interested in using their mastery of traditional methods to say something new and unusual.
The ballet Whipped Cream, like Ryden’s paintings, seems sweet and light on the surface, but also explores a boy’s nightmare, where things feel unsafe and adults can seem unfriendly or even scary.
Watch for…
the way adults in the ballet are portrayed with giant heads, differentiating them from the children.
the sinister, larger-than-life needles used by the Nurses when treating Boy.
the set backdrop in Act II when Boy is feverish. The backdrop is covered with an array of eyeballs, flowers, sea-creatures and single-celled organisms. When explaining this backdrop, Ryden stated, “I was trying to depict what might be lurking in his deep subconscious, what was swirling around.”
Go behind the curtain in this interview with Mark Ryden about Whipped Cream:
And check out the dancers and their dessert-filled costumes at:
Whipping Up a Production
Putting together a brand new production requires that many parts come together to make a whole theatrical experience. When American Ballet Theatre’s Artistic Director, Kevin McKenzie, heard about Ratmansky’s idea for Whipped Cream, he agreed to the production, knowing how much work would need to be done. Not only would there be original choreography, but new sets, scenery and costumes, too. Many people worked tirelessly for months to present the spectacle you see on stage. Read on to learn more about this impressive production:
Choreography
Alexei Ratmansky by Fabrizio Ferri
Alexei Ratmansky is currently ABT’s Artist-in-Residence. He hails from Moscow, Russia, where he trained at the Bolshoi Ballet School in Moscow. He has performed with the Ukrainian National Ballet, Royal Winnipeg Ballet, and the Royal Danish Ballet. Perhaps one of his biggest successes was his appointment as Artistic Director of the Bolshoi Ballet in January 2004 after restaging The Bright Stream. Under Ratmansky's direction, the Bolshoi Ballet was named as one of the best foreign ballet companies in 2005 and 2007 by The Critics' Circle. Mr. Ratmansky's success continued to grow when he won the Theatre Union of Russia's Golden Mask Award for Best Choreographer for his production of Jeu de Cartes for the Bolshoi Ballet in 2007. In January 2009, Mr. Ratmansky joined American Ballet Theatre as Artist-in-Residence and has since choreographed The Nutcracker, Firebird, Shostakovich Trilogy, The Tempest, The Sleeping Beauty, and Songs of Bukovina specifically for American Ballet Theatre.
Ratmansky’s choreography challenges dancers because it is very quick and detailed. He puts unexpected movements together, which ask the dancers to utilize their bodies in new ways. Ratmansky’s choreography is often inspired by and responsive to the music.
In Act I, Princess Tea Flower performs a solo. Watch for moments you don’t usually see in classical ballet, including:
when the ballerina drops her arms, letting them go limp.
the parts of Princess Tea Flower’s solo that take place on the floor. In ballet, dancers don’t traditionally sit or roll on the floor. In fact, many of their movements are done on their toes with a lift through the torso and arms, giving an impression of lightness.
Costumes and Scenery
Being inexperienced when it came to costume design, Ryden was unsure how his paper sketches would translate into garments—especially ones that would allow a dancer to move freely. In addition, he had never painted on such a large scale, a proportion obviously needed for scenic backdrops. But no worries; help was on the way.
Costume designer Holly Hynes was hired to assist with translating Ryden’s designs into costumes, and stage designer Camellia Koo helped with the scenery. This was no small task since there are 150 costumes in Whipped Cream. In fact, 11 different costume shops were needed to create all of the costumes. Additionally, two different scenic houses translated Ryden’s designs into large painted backdrops.
See below and compare Mark Ryden’s painting of Princess Tea Flower and the actual costume the dancer wears in the ballet created for the dancer.
Stella Abrera as Princess Tea Flower. Photo: Doug Gifford
Also, watch for…
the three liquors who distract the doctor, allowing Boy to escape. Notice how their costumes make them look like bottles, but still allow the dancers to bend, jump, and turn.
the way the four adult characters carry the big puppet heads on their shoulders. Each of these gigantic heads was made in a costume shop in Portland, Oregon. They are only around 10 pounds each because they are made from carbon fiber. If the heads were too heavy, it would be hard for the dancers to move. Each one was personally painted by Mark Ryden.
The ballet includes 20 different wigs, three beards and mustaches, and one prosthetic nose. They were made by ABT’s hair and makeup departments.
There are 78,000 Swarovski crystals adorning the scenery and costumes. Of these, 64,000 were applied to the costumes, and 16,000 to the scenery. Plus, don’t miss the three chandeliers decorated with crystals.
Nicolo’s wig with its two-foot long, hand-dyed braid.
When the costumes and set pieces are finished, the design team checks to see what they look like on stage to make sure the colors and details are visible to the audience from many rows back in the performance hall. Adjustments to costumes are often made right up to performance time, even during the ballet, if fixes need to be made.
Scene from Whipped Cream. Photo: Gene Schiavone.
Take Action: That’s Surreal!
Mark Ryden’s artwork has often been called surrealist. Surrealism is an artistic movement of the 20th century that sought to express what might be happening in the subconscious mind.
When The Boy is feverish, we have a glimpse into his subconscious as portrayed by a mixture of images on the scenic backdrop, including eyeballs, flowers, and sea creatures. How they connect and why they are there is a mystery. Surrealist artists like to connect images that aren’t normally seen together to make us look at them in a new way.
Daniil Simkin and Richel Ruiz in Whipped Cream. Photo: Gene Schiavone.
If you were a surrealist artist, what items or ideas would you put together? Try cutting out images from a magazine, and then combine or overlap them in an interesting collage. Don’t worry if your collage makes sense or if the images connect logically to one another.
Take a picture and post it to Facebook, Instagram, Twitter, Tumblr, Snapchat, or any other platform. Then, tag five friends and ask them to share their collages. Use #surrealKC as your hashtag.
To read more about Surrealism, go to: http://www.tate.org.uk/kids/explore/what-is/surrealism.
Explore More
Go even deeper with the Whipped Cream Extras.
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Photo (TOP): Scene from Whipped Cream. Photo: Gene Schiavone.
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American Ballet Theatre's engagement is made possible through generous endowment support of The Lee and Juliet Folger Fund.
Support for Ballet at the Kennedy Center is generously provided by Elizabeth and C. Michael Kojaian.