A ‘Nutcracker’ Dressed in Bon Bons, With a Pineapple Throne

When Isabel and Ruben Toledo took on the redesign of a treasured production for Miami City Ballet — “George Balanchine’s The Nutcracker” — they were a bit overwhelmed. They still are.

“We’re still biting our nails, because it’s no easy task!” said Ruben, a visual artist, who is in charge of the sets. “This is like the ‘Gone With the Wind’ of ballets.”

Isabel, the fashion designer of the pair, recalled her initial response. “I said, ‘All right: Karinska, help.’ ”

Karinska, along with Rouben Ter-Arutunian, designed the 1964 production of Balanchine’s “Nutcracker.” (The scenery for the 1954 original version was by Horace Armistead.). The Toledos’ interpretation pays homage to them as well as to the spirit — and temperature — of Miami. It’s as vivid as you might expect, from the Soldiers who come in a rainbow of colors to the Snowflakes who wear galactic crowns.

“Isabel wanted them to be really modern and almost floating from outer space,” Ruben said of the Snowflakes’ headpieces.

“So they’re not as ‘princess,’” she explained. “They’re a little bit more atmospheric.”

And for her Sugarplum Fairy — she oversees the Land of the Sweets — Isabel wanted more pop. At the couple’s Manhattan studio, she pointed to a swatch of tulle covered with iridescent pastel dots. When she watched a dancer perform the part, she said, she was struck by her joy: “I kept thinking, how do I express that in cloth?”

Photo

Ruben added: “You kept saying, ‘It’s effervescent. Like bubbles flying out of the body.’ ”

The Toledos’ new sets and costumes will be unveiled on Dec. 7 at the Music Center in Los Angeles, which co-commissioned the production, before it continues to Florida. The production features projections by Wendall K. Harrington that help make the house, where the first act party scene takes place — and the Christmas tree — come to life. The second act, in which the Sugarplum Fairy takes over, is all about color and candy. “You know you’re in a place that’s a bit tropical,” Ruben said. “It’s very alive.”

But most of all, their “The Nutcracker” is about children. The Toledos’ Mother Ginger, a comic character who keeps her vast offspring hidden underneath her skirt, is reimagined as a living doll with an enormous head. “We really wanted this to have the feeling from a children’s perspective all the way through,” Isabel said. “As much as we could do it, everything became a toy.”

Lourdes Lopez, now artistic director of Miami City Ballet, danced in Balanchine’s production as a New York City Ballet principal. When she decided that Miami’s version needed a makeover, she thought of the Toledos.

“I didn’t want this to deviate too much from the Karinska and Rouben Ter-Arutunian, which I think is still so magical,” Ms. Lopez said, and the basic setting is intact. “They are the kind of artists who honor a history and a legacy, and then they move from there.”

Recently, the Toledos — both born in Cuba in 1961, they met while in high school in New Jersey — spoke about their inspiration. What follows are edited excerpts from a lively discussion.

You were shown a film of the ballet in which Balanchine (1904-1983) played the part of Marie’s uncle, Drosselmeier. Did that inspire you?

RUBEN TOLEDO Big time. How about the spooky scene where the chair flies?

ISABEL TOLEDO This is the beginning of our “Nutcracker.” The house is alive. That came from that movie.

And you appreciated the spookiness of it?

RUBEN I can be a bit gothic-y. When I came here from Cuba as a kid, life became magical! I had never seen naked trees. [He twisted his arms like gnarled branches.] And it was a huge snowfall in 1967. Cars and parking meters looked like castles.

Photo

The sun came down at 4 p.m. and on TV were Dracula and Frankenstein. We didn’t have monsters in Cuba! We had the revolution. So to me, that’s all rolled up into Christmas: It’s an other-world fantasyland.

You’re starting the ballet with projections?

RUBEN We’re working with the great Wendall Harrington. I’m in good hands. There’s magic happening throughout the house. This is the period, too, where they invented wallpaper. You know how a little kid kind of stares into wallpaper? Hey, it’s an ode to the creativity of childhood and the imagination of children — how things become other things.

You are both conscious that this ballet is set during the Industrial Revolution. How did that affect your designs?

ISABEL It’s very much like today: the beginning of another time. And it hit my industry a lot. All of a sudden, they had a lot of tassels — things were being made by machines.

RUBEN Materials and dyes were being invented. People were showing off: “Look at my beautiful home, look at my beautiful wife, look at our beautiful children, look at our new sofa!” But they still had this incredible sentimentality; they still wanted to touch you emotionally. Hopefully, that’s what the production does with the clothes and the sets.

How do you give the ballet a Miami vibe?

RUBEN We have a pineapple throne. It’s very warm. When you look at the past, it’s vivid and alive — it’s just as pop as our present. We have a feeling that the past has faded, but at the time it hadn’t! Purple was invented. Chartreuse. Shocking pink.

ISABEL People are traveling too. In a way, I wanted to reflect that in the children [in the ballet]. In their dress sometimes — not ethnic, but regional. And for ornamentation, I tried to use things that felt like toys.

How so?

RUBEN They look like candy. Something you would pop into your mouth.

We take design really seriously — and it’s a language you’re putting out there: You’re helping to form a child’s vision of how life can be.

ISABEL You are forming an aesthetic.

RUBEN All the senses are touched. That’s part of what we want to do: creating a vision that they’ll never forget. A new tradition.

ISABEL It sets you on a path.

In that it’s an entry point that could fuel a child’s imagination?

RUBEN Yes. It opens doors and makes you think of possibilities. That is what happened to us coming from Cuba as kids and having that privilege of diving into this world free-form with no borders. You have to allow creativity to flourish, and you do it by example. You just show it. Believe me, the fish swim there. We have to keep that alive at any cost.