For 37 years, the ballerinas playing Clara in Ballet Minnesota’s annual production of “The Classic Nutcracker” have worn the same ankle-length burgundy dress, finished with a pink petticoat and lace ruffles.
Cheryl Rist, who handles costumes for the company, found the dress in 1988 and modified it for the ensemble’s first Clara. She keeps it repaired, cleaned and ironed.
“It’s still in good condition,” said Rist, 71, of Woodbury, who tends to refer to the dress as she or her. “She still looks good on stage. I have her here now at my house because I was going to iron her and get her ready.”
Rist can’t remember the name or location of the store where she purchased the dress or how much it cost.
“I actually got it at an antique place,” she said. “It had the right feel to it. It didn’t look like what it looks like now. It was totally redone after we bought it. I added tons of ruffles. I wanted one that looks like a coat dress. On stage it reads very well.”
Rist chose a burgundy dress “because the color helps tell the story,” she said. “Clara’s mother loves that color. She wears an old-fashioned magenta color. The Sugar Plum Fairy wears a very dark magenta. It’s all connected to Clara’s dream. It’s all connected to her reality.”
Stagecraft
Clara wears the dress to her godfather Drosselmeyer’s annual Christmas party. When the ballerina leaves the stage, she immediately rips the dress off — revealing a nightgown underneath — and returns to stage, Rist said.
Rist designed the dress “to basically fall off Clara when she goes off stage,” she said. “Clara has, like, maybe 10 seconds to get back on stage, so it had to be a drop-away dress.”
The collar and the ruffles on Clara’s dress are also the collar and the ruffles of her nightgown, Rist said.
“The buttons are just big snaps that she just pulls open,” Rist said. “She runs off stage, rips the front of the dress open, and it falls down, and she goes back on.”
“It’s like a trap door,” explained Clara Jang, 13, of Woodbury, one of the ballerinas playing Clara in this year’s production. “You just step out of it so you can be ready for your next scene quickly.”
A helper off-stage is assigned the task of unsnapping the bow off the back of Clara’s dress, Rist said.
Wearing the dress
The dress can be adjusted for each ballerina’s height, Rist said.
Ballerina Clara Jang rehearses in the dress worn by the character Clara in the Ballet Minnesota production of “The Classic Nutcracker” at the company’s studio in St. Paul. (John Autey / Pioneer Press)
Cindy Chen, 13, of Woodbury, is the other ballerina playing Clara. She said it’s an honor to dance the role and wear the dress.
“Being able to add my name (to the list) makes me feel very happy,” she said. “I’m proud to go on stage in this mostly hand-made dress.”
The two teens share the four performances: three open to the public, one for schoolchildren. Cindy will perform on Friday afternoon and Saturday night; Clara will perform at 2 p.m. Saturday and Sunday.
As for Clara Jang performing the role of Clara in the “Nutcracker”: Grace Jang said her daughter’s name had nothing to do with the ballet; “we just liked the sound of it.”
Ballerina becomes a seamstress
Rist, a longtime ballerina, serves as co-founder, director and teacher at the Classical Ballet Academy in St. Paul, the school connected with the company, Ballet Minnesota. She co-founded the academy with her husband, Andrew Rist, the show’s choreographer.
Cheryl Rist, who also made the Sugar Plum Fairy’s tutu, learned to sew after she became pregnant with the couple’s first child and had to stop dancing.
“I was 28,” she said. “The doctors told me I couldn’t dance when I was pregnant.”
Rist had friends in the costume shop, which was located on another floor at Hennepin Center for the Arts in Minneapolis. “They said, ‘Well, why don’t you just come down here and do extra stuff that we need?’” she said. “While I was there, somebody came in asking for an RAD (Royal Academy of Dance) tutu because in those days, you couldn’t order tutus online. They looked at me and said, ‘Do you want to learn how to make a tutu?’”
Rist became a master at making tutus and other costumes, but she also continued to dance for another three to four years.
“Those were my best years actually,” she said. “When I came back to dancing, I had to redevelop my muscles in the right way.”
Retire the dress?
Rist said she expects Clara’s dress to remain in the rotation for at least the next few years.
“It’s still in good condition. It still looks really good on stage,” she said. “Eventually, it’s going to be replaced, but it’s going to take a while to find one. I’m going to start looking. It takes about two years to find something like that dress — just to find the lace and everything.”
The dress is worn for just four performances and one dress rehearsal a year at The O’Shaughnessy at St. Catherine University, and then cleaned, placed on a hanger and stored, she said.
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Rist replaces one or two of the dresses used in “The Classic Nutcracker” each year. This year, she focused on restoring and repairing the Sugar Plum Fairy’s costume, she said.
“I took it totally apart and took off all the jewels, which is a ton of jewels, so it could be dry cleaned,” she said. “I have to put it back together.”
Clara Jang said she has loved “The Nutcracker” since watching her first production of it when she was in kindergarten.
“We watched some of it in class, and we listened to some of the music, and ever since then I’ve just been in love with the character of Clara,” she said. “It’s been a really special experience getting to be in this role. I feel destined to dance the role of Clara, since we share the name.”
Ballet Minnesota’s ‘Nutcracker’
What: The Classic Nutcracker
Where: The O’Shaughnessy, on the campus of St. Catherine University, 2004 Randolph Ave., St. Paul
When: 2 p.m. and 7 p.m. Saturday, Dec. 20; 2 p.m. Sunday, Dec. 21
Tickets: $20-47
Purchase online: oshag.stkate.edu/events/
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