Three World Premieres Spice Up Smuin's 30th Christmas Ballet

November 20, 2024—Michael Smuin's first Christmas Ballet was performed the year after he founded Smuin Contemporary Ballet, making this the 30th anniversary of what has become a treasured Bay Area annual tradition. Each year's performance includes beloved, familiar standards, such as the boa-wielding vamp in Santa Baby, as well as some new works to surprise and delight audiences. This year's performance features three world premieres, one by Artistic Director Amy Seiwert and the others by Brennan Wall and Rex Wheeler. Yesterday Amy Seiwert graciously talked with Michael Phelan of BayDance.com about these three new additions to Smuin's The Christmas Ballet.

The Christmas Ballet is always divided into two acts, the Classical Christmas of Act 1 set to traditional music and the Cool Christmas of Act 2 set to fun songs. Amy's new work is a serious piece, Dona Nobis Pacem (Grant Us Peace), performed to the traditional music of the same title. Why did she create a classical work instead of a humorous one for Cool Christmas? Amy explains that, "Every year you take a few pieces out and put a few pieces in. You need to find a way to balance them from a directorial point of view." She already had a lot of her own works in Act 2, "that I quite enjoy," she says, and she felt that one more piece by her in Act 2 would be too many. "That's the logistical reason why," she says, "but it's also about finding music that speaks to you, whether it's insanely beautiful, or you see the humor in it, or whatever it is. But you have to love that music from the bottom of your heart, and this music kept saying, 'Make a ballet' to me." The recording of Dona Nobis Pacem is a cello version, "and it's just stunning," gushes Amy. "It's a beautiful melody, and when it's played well... It got stuck in my heart."

Amy goes on to explain that, "There's an interesting story about my motivation behind the piece this year, which I want to share without giving too many details." Amy was asked to make a new piece for Christmas Ballet by a friend in honor of her father, who passed away last year. "Her father was a big supporter of my work," says Amy, "very early on." He was involved with Amy's previous company, Imagery, and with Smuin Ballet. Additional support came from her friend's father's wife. "It is reflective of the caring, and the support, and the inner weaving of those people," explains Amy, "of their love and respect for each other and how they support one another. Again, coming back to that title, Grant Us Peace, whether it's through things growing, things contracting, through celebration, or through grief. I made this for her's and her stepmom's love of her dad."

To prepare for The Christmas Ballet Amy starts listening to Christmas music in August. "That does not bring my husband joy," she laughs. Whenever she finds music that might work for The Christmas Ballet, she puts it on her playlist. "And that list might be fifty songs long," she says. "I'm looking for something that will surprise me or delight me... It's like you're trying to create a new Christmas cookie." Maybe it starts out as a standard ginger snap, but what's going to make it different? "That's what you're looking for in Christmas Ballet. What flavor can I add that's going to surprise and delight people and not make people think, 'What was that? Why would you put that in there?" Reflecting back on previous years, Amy found that the first eight or ten times she created new works for Christmas Ballet was easier. But, year after year, "It's getting to be more of a challenge," she laughs, "finding that different flavor and something that challenges me."

Amy adds that her mother is a retired middle school chorus teacher, "and she has very strong opinions about music for Christmas Ballet, and she will send me things constantly that she thinks I should be creating to."

Most of the dancers learn the Dona Nobis Pacem piece due to possible cast changes in the Christmas Ballet, in case someone is ill or injured. "But also," says Amy, "to keep the dancers invested so they're not always dancing the exact same show twenty shows in a row. It challenges them in a different way artistically, and it's also kinder on their bodies because they don't have the same repetitive stresses over the span of six weeks. It's a long run."

Amy created the piece on Smuin dancers Maggie Carey, Julia Gundzik, and Dominic Barrett. Maggie has been with Smuin since 2018. Amy explains that Maggie is "just having a beautiful moment artistically. She's finding a lot of new, lush lyricism. She's dancing beautifully right now." Julia is dancing her first season with Smuin. "Julia has that lush quality," says Amy, "and also this brilliant, solid ballet technique, a beautiful balance of strength and fluidity." Dominic has been with Smuin nearly a full year. "The fun fact is he went to my high school in Cincinnati." It's a performing arts high school. "If you danced in Cincinnati, there's a good chance you went to that school," explains Amy. "Dominic has just this beautiful, unaffected presence in his dancing," she says, "a beautiful partner. He's a strong male dancer, but you just see it. You don't hear him say it. He's very unaffected and very honest with some beautiful technique. I really dug in deep with those three," reflects Amy.

The costumes are pretty much the same structure across the works in each act of The Christmas Ballet. The original design is by Sandra Woodhall, "a brilliant, brilliant designer," says Amy. "It's gorgeous." "I think what Michael Smuin created so brilliantly with The Christmas Ballet is this framework of what it is. Every year we can change the picture within that frame, but that frame stays the same." Part of that framework is the color scheme of the costumes. In the first act the costumes are all white, while in the second act the costumes are all red. The exception was for one solo of the second act in 2008. Amy had one woman come onstage, "in a pastel pink party dress," that was found in a vintage store. "For me, pink clashes horribly with red," Amy admits, "and that was what we were going for... When you put something out there that's contrary to the original design, it's always with a very specific purpose."

Also new in this year's Christmas Ballet are premieres by Smuin dancer Brennan Wall and choreographer and former Smuin dancer Rex Wheeler. Brennan's piece Last Christmas is danced to the 1984 song of the same name written by George Michael and performed by the pop duo Wham! Referring to Brennan, Amy says, "She's kind of really leaned into the eighties vibe for that. As I was a kid in the eighties, I can really respect that."

Rex Wheeler's piece Someday Soon is performed to the iconic Christmas song Have Yourself a Merry Little Christmas sung by Judy Garland. "Rex has created a truly gender-neutral duet," explains Amy. "It's two women this year. It could just as easily be two men or a woman and a man." The roles are interchangeable and could be reversed. The story is about two people, without any gender-specific meaning. "In thirty years we haven't had a piece like that," Amy says. Given Rex's experience with Smuin and his work in drag performances, "It felt like Rex was the perfect person to take that on," explains Amy. "It's very sweet and very charming."

Smuin's The Christmas Ballet runs from November 23-24 at the Lesher Center in Walnut Creek, December 5-8 at the Mountain View Center for the Performing Arts, and December 13-24 in San Francisco at the Yerba Buena Performing Arts Center. For more information see smuinballet.org.