What are Washington Ballet dancers Corey Landolt and Alexa Torres doing with no Nutcracker?

This year is the first in recent memory that dancers of The Washington Ballet won’t be performing The Nutcracker live. Many professional dancers had their first real stage experience in The Nutcracker. For professional company members and the young dancers and musicians in the show, The Nutcracker is a month of back-to-back performances, equally inspiring and grueling.

With local theaters closed, The DC Line caught up with The Washington Ballet’s Corey Landolt and Alexa Torres to hear about what they’ll be doing this holiday season with no Nutcracker. (This article is Part 2 in a two-part series; click here to read interviews with Sona Kharatian and Katherine Barkman.)

For those interested in watching The Nutcracker online, recent articles in Vogue and West Side Rag summarize some options, and The Washington Ballet has created a webpage for its Nutcracker-themed options, including The Nutcracker Tea Party at Home, Clara’s Christmas Eve Dream and more.

Now in his 15th season with The Washington Ballet, Landolt started his career in DC with three seasons as a studio company member. Over the past five years he has grown into leading roles in works by Balanchine, Cranko and Ratmansky as well as in the company’s Nutcracker. 

In contrast, Torres is among the newest members. Currently a company apprentice, she joined The Washington Ballet in 2018 and has performed Clara and other roles in its Nutcracker over the past three seasons.

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Corey Landolt: “Everyone really grows together because you’re all supporting each other”

Thank you for your time speaking with me today, Corey. Since we’re talking about The Nutcracker specifically, do you recall your first Nutcracker role?

I do. I was 5 years old, and it was with Ballet NJ in Berlin, New Jersey. And I was a soldier.

How many consecutive years have you been doing The Nutcracker? 

27 years total, and 15 years with the Washington Ballet.

What’s something about the Nutcracker experience as a dancer that most people don’t know?

The Nutcracker provides the opportunity for growth in your career. Because you get such a broad array of roles as a professional dancer, and you get such a broad array of roles through the Nutcracker. And you get a lot of shows to do it. Proving your consistency over that long run of Nutcracker shows, proving your growth in a role over a run, proving that you can step in and kind of save the day if someone gets injured. That’s the kind of stuff directors look at and they see, ‘Wow, you know, in the spring program, when we’ve got this thing, I think we should consider this dancer.’

What’s your favorite Nutcracker role? And have you danced it?

I want to say Anacostian. It doesn’t have the big flash of Cavalier, or Snow King — both of which I’ve done. But it’s a five-minute pas de deux that I think is very beautiful. And it’s challenging enough to be interesting for the audience, and to grow into the role as a dancer.

What would you be doing today if there was no quarantine happening, if there was Nutcracker happening?

Let’s see. … Today is Friday, the fourth of December, so we would be a week into our run. We would have just started our runs at the Warner Theatre yesterday. I’d have gotten up at 7 a.m., walked the dogs, had a little quality time with my fiancée, and would have headed to the theater around 8 a.m. I’d have class, usually 9:30 to 11 or so. Depending on if there’s a matinee. I think today probably we wouldn’t be doing any tech or dress, because that would have happened earlier in the run, so we would just go right into our shows. So that would be warming up and performing and then getting home around 10 p.m., just in time to take a bath or shower and do it all over again the next day.

What are you doing today?

Well, today my fiancée and I just looked at a condo. We’re looking to buy a place. As soon as I get off this call, I’m heading to my buddy’s tree lot, at Wonder Garden, and I’ll be there selling Christmas trees until probably 9 p.m. Not today but I’m also working on my bachelor’s degree part-time through Saint Mary’s of California, in a program for professional performing artists. I have no plans to retire from the Ballet anytime soon — maybe three years or so. But I can tell you at 33, not dancing in the studio for 8, 9 months, it definitely affects the body. And I’m currently working on my CPT certification to become a personal trainer. Just because I don’t know how long we’re going to be laid off for COVID. We’re meant to be returning back in January, but you know, things are uncertain. And I don’t like uncertainty. I want to have something lined up. So I’ve been preparing for that.

How will you spend your December? 

I’m the kind of person who has to stay busy somehow. That’s part of why I’m taking this job at the tree lot. But I’ll be working out a fair amount, staying in shape. And for the first time in years, I’ll be able to be with my family for Christmas, which is a huge one.

What’s something you’ll particularly miss about doing The Nutcracker?

The family. You live in the theater with all of these people for a month. And it’s not easy for anyone. So everyone really grows together because you’re all supporting each other through something really tough. It really fosters a family feeling with your co-workers.

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Alexa Torres: “The feeling of the curtain going up is just such a beautiful, beautiful sensation”

What was your first Nutcracker role?

Ever? I’m from the Dominican Republic so it was in the Dominican Republic. I was about 5 years old and I was a little mouse. I was the first one on stage and I would run in and then run out in a unitard, and it was amazing. 

Wow. So you’ve been doing The Nutcracker since you were 5. How many consecutive years now, and how many of those with the Washington Ballet? 

For three consecutive years in the Dominican Republic — the one in the capital, and the one in my city. Two at the same time. I didn’t do a full-length Nutcracker until I got to the United States, about age 14. So more than 10 years. 

What’s something about the Nutcracker experience as a dancer that most people don’t know?

That, as a dancer, you are in multiple different roles. I think a lot of people don’t know that. That sometimes they’ll be looking at the Snow Queen and then see her again as the Cardinal. And that Clara sometimes isn’t Clara, she’s just a snowflake. And that also makes it difficult.

Do you have a favorite Nutcracker role?

I would say I have two. Clara, definitely. And the Snow Queen, because of the music. As a little girl I always aspired to be Clara because she’s the girl that dreams, and I love performing that role. And I actually got to do Snow Queen last year with The Washington Ballet, and it was honestly such an honor and I really lived it through that music. It was exactly as I imagined it would be. 

What would you be doing today if The Nutcracker was happening?

I would 100% be performing.

Can you describe what that day is like? 

If we were performing at THEARC, we would actually be busing there with the company from the studios. They always get this yellow bus, and we would wake up super early in the morning, and get to the ballet around 9 or 10, depending on the day. And we’d take the bus to THEARC, take a class — they’re beautiful studios with the lights and the sun. And then we get a pretty long break where a lot of the time we might rehearse for things that we would be performing later in the run. And then at night, we start getting ready and then do the performances.

What will you do today, instead of that, with no Nutcracker? 

I actually have my two sisters visiting me. So this morning we decided to take class together, and I gave them a little ballet lesson. And then we did some pointe work, and then I gave a pointe demonstration for the [Washington Ballet] school.

And how will you spend your December?

I’m going home for the first time in a year, back to the Dominican Republic. Next week. And I’ll be spending Christmas there with my family.

Is there anything you’ll particularly miss about not doing The Nutcracker? 

Getting ready to go on stage. You’re with your friends, and the makeup, and the hair, and the smell — all of that. That feeling when everybody is in the dressing room, everybody’s sweaty, and all the nerves are up. And then the feeling of performing — the music and making everyone so happy, and everybody is, like, so in awe. The feeling of the curtain going up is just such a beautiful, beautiful sensation.… I definitely miss it this year.