There’s a lot to recommend Tchaikovsky’s composition for the Nutcracker ballet, but irrefutably – the thing doesn’t swing. Enter Duke Ellington, who in 1960 reimagined The Nutcracker Suite with a jazz bent, and so “Waltz of the Flowers” becomes the driving “Dance of the Floreadores” and “Dance of the Reed-Pipes” saunters anew as “Toot Toot Tootie Toot.” Combining ballet, modern dance, and African traditional movement, Ballet Afrique fuses Ellington’s score and a modernized American setting for a new spin on The Nutcracker that’s become its own annual holiday tradition for Austin dance fans. – Kimberley Jones
