Locking, Popping, and Waacking to “The Nutcracker Suite”

You are probably familiar with the melodic and stirring strings of Tchaikovsky’s “Nutcracker,” a holiday classic ballet. Who can forget the toy soldiers fighting the Rat King, the growing Christmas tree to the sounds of Tchaikovsky’s sumptuous score.

White “The Nutcracker” is a cash cow for many ballet companies, many dance companies in more recent years have looked to put a different spin on the holiday ballet classic. Debbie Allen’s “Hot Chocolate Nutcracker” is a fresh take on the traditional “Nutcracker” including new characters, new music, and an overall more inclusive approach to the holiday classic.

“The NutWAACKER” is the current reinterpretation of the classic “Nutcracker.” The brainchild of Princess Lockeroo, “The NutWAACKER” infuses the classic “Nutcracker” with an amalgam of dance styles from hip hop, lyrical jazz, ballet, and waacking. For those not familiar with waacking, waacking is a style of street dance developed in the American West Coast of the 1970s, waacking (or whacking) defines itself with stylistic arm movements, striking poses and self-expression.

Princess Lockeroo (Samara Cohen-O’Neal) is the founding of the first waaacking dance group in the US. A student of the late Tyrone Proctor, a legendary “Soul Train” dancer and one of the forerunners of the waacking dance movement in Los Angeles, Princess Lockeroo attended the LaGuardia’s High School of the Performing Arts and later trained at Broadway Dance Center.

With Princess Lockeroo’s “The NutWAACKER,” she moves this underground and club nightline dance form into a concert dance form. Set in Central Park, “The NutWAACKER” follows the journey of a young waacking dancer on journey to self-realization and family during the holiday season. Lockeroo pulls all the waacking pyrotechnical feats with dance artist that rise to the occasion.

This 60-minute “Nutcracker” reinterpretation is joyful, entertaining, and well-choreographed, employing a variety of dance styles. If there is one drawback to this is production, it is in the production value. However, this production is a part of Works & Process which is a wonderful, fertile ground for dance works that are raw and still not quite baked.

Hopefully, “The NutWAACKER” will become an alternative holiday staple to the traditional “Nutcracker.” And Princess Lockeroo appears to be on her way to making that happen. Bravo Princess!!

William S. Gooch