This season, two vivacious boys at the School of American Ballet make their princely debuts in New York City Ballet’s production of “The Nutcracker.”
The hellion of “George Balanchine’s The Nutcracker” is a little boy named Fritz who is as naughty as they come. He fights with his sister, Marie; he convinces the boys at a Christmas Eve party to antagonize the girls. And who breaks the Nutcracker doll? Silly question. Wherever Fritz goes, trouble follows.
For a young dancer, it can be a star turn.
This season at New York City Ballet, two former Fritzes have moved up the casting ladder to play the most coveted male children’s role of all. Hannon Hatchett, 10, and Finlay McCurdy-Van Alstine, 11, both students at the company-affiliated School of American Ballet, will make their debuts as the Prince, a part that demands real acting and dancing chops: A Nutcracker soldier, stiff and robotic, must blossom into a graceful, gentle Prince.
He must be brave. He must have elegance. And he must be able to perform in front of a couple of thousand people. (“The Nutcracker” opens at Lincoln Center on Friday and runs through Jan. 5.)
Hannon and Finlay are stage animals with a zeal for performing full out while keeping their innocence intact. After working with them when they played Fritz, Dena Abergel and Arch Higgins, the children’s repertory director at City Ballet and associate director, knew that they would approach the Prince with a sense of purpose.
From left, Hannon Hatchett, 10, and Finlay McCurdy-Van Alstine, 11, at Lincoln Center.
“We felt secure that they would both take the role seriously,” Abergel said. “Because they are young boys, and in order to carry the ballet, you have to do your homework. And they’ve been doing their homework.” That means, she added, “Practicing and going through it in your head and being prepared for the rehearsals.”
It helps that they are pals, rooting for each other as they try to absorb the steps and the nuances of the role. They don’t really remember how they became friends, but Hannon put it like this: “Just started talking. Kept talking. Became friends.”
Hannon, who has appeared in two other productions at City Ballet, held the stage grandly as the young hero, Oliver, in Christopher Wheeldon’s “Carnival of the Animals” last winter. His mother, Callie Hatchett, a ballet teacher, said she and her husband “see him in his everyday life as a just-turned 10-year-old little boy playing and being silly.” So when she sees him onstage, “I feel blown away sometimes,” she said. “He just really comes alive onstage.”
Finlay, in sixth grade, and Hannon, in fifth, are both thoughtful — somehow both guileless and worldly — but also vivacious balls of energy. Hannon plays baseball and basketball and loves the Yankees and the Knicks. Finlay, a Mets fan, is trying to teach himself how to play the guitar.
“That’s not working out as well as it could,” he said. “I do a lot of drawing and reading, and I like hanging out with my friends a lot if I have the time. But nobody — none of my friends have the time. Especially me.”
Finlay’s musician parents, Michael McCurdy and Christa Van Alstine — she was on tour with Joe Jackson when Finlay was cast as the Prince — enrolled him in classes when he was 3. They weren’t the ones pushing it; after a play date at a local dance studio, “he just kept asking to go back,” Van Alstine said. “And that was it. He found it. He told us what he wanted.”
They are in awe of his fascination with ballet. From the time he was little, he told them that he loved the way it made him feel. “Sometimes he has trouble focusing, and I really do think that it’s this gift to him,” Van Alstine said. “It helps keep his body busy. It helps keep his mind focused. It’s creative, but it’s structured. There’s a lot of freedom, but there are expectations. I think there’s something about it that just really works with his mind and his body.”
