Clark University will host a production of Tchaikovsky’s Nutcracker on Saturday, Dec. 1 and Sunday, Dec. 2. This collaborative event is bringing together music, arts and dance groups from both the Clark and greater Worcester communities. Merging traditional classical music with many different styles of dance, it will be the first event of its kind on Clark’s campus.

It is a non-traditional Nutcracker performance in many senses, considering that the traditional Nutcracker performances celebrates imperialism and cultural appropriation. There will be different styles of dance in the Clark performance, all performed to Tchaikovsky’s Romantic-era music, and the show is centered on the theme and thesis of the necessity of collaboration.

Elizabeth Jones (Clark ’19) and Aleena Blankenship (Clark ’19) started thinking about this project in December of 2016. At its core, they wanted it to be a project that brings together different communities at Clark University and in greater Worcester. Jones and Blankenship play cello in Clark’s Sinfonia string orchestra, and they started to think about how the different music groups at Clark could work together to create the music for the show. Samantha McGill, who directs Clark Concert Band is the musical director for this project.

As far as visual performers go, this project involves the two improv teams at Clark, The Peapod Squad and Shenanigans; three Clark dance groups, the Ballroom Dance Team, Variant Dance Troupe and Dance Society; the Boys and Girls Club of Worcester’s In Da Zone Dance Team; the Roxbury Center for the Performing Arts; and a handful of Clark students and several talented kids from the Worcester community. Aditionally, two short films made by a multi-talented Clark violinist will be screened.

Jones and Blankenship said in a prepared statement, “We all depend on each other, whether we recognize it or not. This show is about leaning into collaboration and trusting that your partners in production will deliver. With the right conditions, many contributing minds can create something more beautiful than a singular mind can imagine and a singular directorship can create. The trick is not digressing into chaos and confusion. At the end of the paper programs for the show, reads the inscription ‘Please collaborate to change our world.'”

The Nutcracker will be staged at Clark’s Atwood Hall on Dec 1 at 7 p.m. or Dec 2 at 3 p.m. Admission is free, but a cash donation of $10 is suggested. For more information, visit facebook.com/ClarkUNutcracker.