Arts

Michelle Martin gets the pointe for 'The Nutcracker'

By Jeanne Claire van Ryzin
Dec. 8, 2005

Most people don't have visions of sugar plums dancing in their heads in July. But that's when Michelle Martin, associate artistic director of Ballet Austin and a big-picture nut, sets up the rehearsal schedule for "The Nutcracker," the most popular stage event almost every year in Central Texas.

She's the air traffic controller of Ballet Austin's production, the one who blocks out the fall afternoons when 150 ballet students will practice their moves as bon bons or rat soldiers. And she's the one who makes sure the company dancers who perform the main roles, such as the Sugar Plum Fairy and her Cavalier, are primed not only for the 11 public performances, but also for six school performances.

Amber Novak for AA-S Ballet Austin Associate Artistic Director Michelle Martin. 'The Nutcracker' When: 7:30 p.m. Fridays and Saturdays through Dec. 23, 2 p.m. Saturday, Dec. 17-18 and Dec. 23. Where: Bass Concert Hall, University of Texas campus, 23rd Street and Robert Dedman Drive. Tickets: $17-$75 Information: 469-SHOW. www.balletaustin.org.

Then again, Martin's a detail nut as well. A recent Friday morning found the petite, focused Martin in a light-drenched Ballet Austin studio. The dance equivalent of the assistant football coach, she's wearing black dance sneakers and sporting a clipboard. She watches intensely from a chair on the sidelines as Aare Krumpe and Eric Midgley — two of the dancers cast as the Sugar Plum Fairy and Nutcracker Prince, respectively — rehearse a sweeping pas de deux. When the music stops, she tweaks Krumpe's arm position and reviews a series of jumps with Midgley.

Ballet Austin artistic director Stephen Mills creates the choreography for "The Nutcracker" and many other productions, but it's Martin's job to polish the moves and keep them true to Mills' originals.

With an artistic director such as Mills, a busy dance-maker here and abroad, there's a much greater need for Ballet Austin to have someone especially capable in Martin's role. "Stephen and I have skill sets that match symbiotically," she says. Mills sets the creative direction; Martin paints out the big picture and nails down the details.

It's a job to which she brings singular training.

A native of Canada, Martin danced with the Alberta Ballet Company for four years before joining the Indianapolis Ballet Theatre. She landed at Ballet Austin in 1991, dancing for a year before becoming ballet mistress, an assistant director or coach of sorts. Then she graduated to her current role. Along the way, she founded Ballet Austin II, Ballet Austin's apprentice program that trains young dancers — including current main troupe dancers such as Reginald Harris — for the professional stage.

Over the years, "The Nutcracker" has become Martin's family holiday tradition. She and her husband, Bill Piner, a former dancer who is now director of Ballet Austin Academy, have two children, daughter Madison, 12, and son Nicholas, 9. With both parents busy backstage, the kids have spent their holiday seasons in the wings at Bass Concert Hall watching show after show of "The Nutcracker."

Forget Santa Claus in the mall. Instead, it's a host of celebrity Mother Gingers squeezing into the oversized dress before being pushed onstage.

"It's actually been a culturally healthy, noncommercial way for our family to spend the holidays together," says Martin.

And after the last curtain closes on "The Nutcracker" and Martin hangs up her clipboard, the family embarks on the rest of their not-so-ordinary Christmas.

"We order out for Chinese food on Christmas Eve and then eat the leftovers on Christmas Day," says Martin. That pattern got interrupted one year when out-of-town family showed up and prepared a traditional Christmas dinner with all the trimmings. Madison balked, her mother reports: "She missed leftover Chinese food."

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jvanryzin@statesman.com; 445-3699