美国国家公共电台 NPR 'The Nutcracker' With An Alaskan Twist

 

SCOTT SIMON, HOST:

When you picture the "Nutcracker" ballet, what do you see? Dancing, dueling¹ mice and wooden soldiers, the sugar plum fairy, maybe BJ Leiderman, who writes our theme music. What about a bald eagle and a fisherman? That's what you can see onstage in Sitka, Alaska, where generations of dancers have taken the Tchaikovsky classic and made it Alaskan. From member station KCAW in Sitka, Emily Kwong ducked backstage to meet the performers.

EMILY KWONG, BYLINE²: This Christmas ballet begins when a girl named Marie is gifted a wooden doll by her grandfather. And after the clock strikes midnight, the Nutcracker, played by 18-year-old Kincaid Parsons, comes to life.

(SOUNDBITE OF TCHAIKOVSKY'S "THE NUTCRACKER")

KINCAID PARSONS: This is the moment I change from doll to man. It's quite an intricate scene. You've got the presents moving out, the curtain coming in. There's bad mosquitoes everywhere. And then I come in to save the day.

KWONG: Wait, mosquitoes?

PARSONS: Oh, yeah, 'cause this is the Alaskan version.

KWONG: This is the 10th time the Fireweed Dance Guild³ has staged "The Nutcracker" in Sitka. And every few years, they give it an Alaskan twist.

(SOUNDBITE OF TCHAIKOVSKY'S "THE NUTCRACKER")

PARSONS: We have jellyfish with these awesome⁴ umbrella floaty props⁵. And we've got northern lights.

MELINDA MCADAMS: The gold miners, the can-can girls.

KWONG: Melinda McAdams is the director, with a shock of bright pink running through her gray hair. She's also Parsons' mom.

MCADAMS: I have a drawing above my desk that Kincaid made when he was probably like a kindergartener that says, dancing is double fun, and so are you.

KWONG: And McAdams has no problem breaking the rules of ballet to keep the material fresh. Instead of whisking Marie away to the land of sweets, the Nutcracker takes her to the faraway kingdom of Alaska. In Act 2, there's a kerfuffle of cruise ship passengers, a waltz of the state flower - forget-me-nots - and a slime line, where tap dancers in rubber boots process fish to a beat.

(SOUNDBITE OF TCHAIKOVSKY'S "THE NUTCRACKER")

MCADAMS: I'm proud of the fact that the audience recognizes their lives in it. They're like, you should do the Spanish dance with crabs⁶ because their little snapper hands will be like the castanets. So we've done it that way ever since.

(SOUNDBITE OF TCHAIKOVSKY'S "THE NUTCRACKER")

KWONG: And the biggest tutu of the night is worn by a crusty old fisherman on stilts⁷, played by Don Lehman. He made a snap decision to take ballet classes in his 40s as he neared the summit of Denali, the highest peak in North America.

DON LEHMAN: And it came to me in a flash between one step and the next - well, I should take ballet.

KWONG: Instead of Mother Ginger⁸, Lehman plays Father Herring. His torso is a fishing boat, and his enormous hoop⁹ dress represents the blue ocean. The youngest dancers in the studio swim out from beneath him, dressed as herring he's unable to catch. At 65, Lehman has watched generations of herring dancers grow into ballerinas. He fought back tears and said he was sad to be taking his final bow.

LEHMAN: It's fun watching them grow, and you can't believe how beautiful and graceful¹⁰ they are.

(SOUNDBITE OF TCHAIKOVSKY'S "THE NUTCRACKER")

KWONG: Lehman calls it the best Nutcracker, per capita, anywhere.

For NPR News, I'm Emily Kwong in Sitka, Alaska.

1 dueling   

n. 决斗, 抗争(=duelling) 动词duel的现在分词形式

参考例句：

• More light-hearted But somewhat puzzled, Vladimir prepared to meet Eugene on the dueling ground. 弗拉基米尔心里轻松了一些，但仍感到有些困惑，在这种心情下，他准备去决斗场地迎战叶甫盖尼。 来自英汉 - 翻译样例 - 文学
• They had been dueling for hours and finally called a draw. 他们一直决斗了数小时，最后打成平局。

2 byline   

n.署名；v.署名

参考例句：

• His byline was absent as well.他的署名也不见了。
• We wish to thank the author of this article which carries no byline.我们要感谢这篇文章的那位没有署名的作者。

3 guild   

n.行会，同业公会，协会

参考例句：

• He used to be a member of the Writers' Guild of America.他曾是美国作家协会的一员。
• You had better incorporate the firm into your guild.你最好把这个公司并入你的行业协会。

4 awesome   

adj.令人惊叹的，难得吓人的，很好的

参考例句：

• The church in Ireland has always exercised an awesome power.爱尔兰的教堂一直掌握着令人敬畏的权力。
• That new white convertible is totally awesome.那辆新的白色折篷汽车简直棒极了.

5 props   

小道具； 支柱( prop的名词复数 )； 支持者； 道具； （橄榄球中的）支柱前锋

参考例句：

• Rescuers used props to stop the roof of the tunnel collapsing. 救援人员用支柱防止隧道顶塌陷。
• The government props up the prices of farm products to support farmers' incomes. 政府保持农产品价格不变以保障农民们的收入。

6 crabs   

n.蟹( crab的名词复数 )；阴虱寄生病；蟹肉v.捕蟹( crab的第三人称单数 )

参考例句：

• As we walked along the seashore we saw lots of tiny crabs. 我们在海岸上散步时看到很多小蟹。 来自《简明英汉词典》
• The fish and crabs scavenge for decaying tissue. 鱼和蟹搜寻腐烂的组织为食。 来自《简明英汉词典》

7 stilts   

n.（支撑建筑物高出地面或水面的）桩子，支柱( stilt的名词复数 )；高跷

参考例句：

• a circus performer on stilts 马戏团里踩高跷的演员
• The bamboo huts here are all built on stilts. 这里的竹楼都是架空的。 来自《现代汉英综合大词典》

8 ginger   

n.姜，精力，淡赤黄色；adj.淡赤黄色的；vt.使活泼，使有生气

参考例句：

• There is no ginger in the young man.这个年轻人没有精神。
• Ginger shall be hot in the mouth.生姜吃到嘴里总是辣的。

9 hoop   

n.（篮球）篮圈，篮

参考例句：

• The child was rolling a hoop.那个孩子在滚铁环。
• The wooden tub is fitted with the iron hoop.木盆都用铁箍箍紧。

10 graceful   

adj.优美的，优雅的；得体的

参考例句：

• His movements on the parallel bars were very graceful.他的双杠动作可帅了!
• The ballet dancer is so graceful.芭蕾舞演员的姿态是如此的优美。