Behind the Scenes: Sugarplum Fairies Dance Dance Revolution

With the recession casting its ugly shadow over the holiday season, it seems reasonable that everyone and your mama would be cutting back on the gift-giving this year (although I’m still expecting big things from your mama -- I’m sorry, was that inappropriate?). We say bull puckey to cutting back. Bull-reindeer-puckey. And to prove it, Icon Redux Episode 3: Dance of the Sugar Plum Fairies, is the most icon-studded installment of the series yet, offering you not one, not two, but 15 different icons in a Dickensian lineup of Icons Past, Present, and Soon-to-Be that seems recklessly irresponsible now that the Age of American Opulence is officially behind us. But what some call irresponsibility, we call love. That’s how much we love you. We’d give you the shirt off our backs, but it was an expensive shirt, and with the economy the way it is, who knows when we’ll be able to afford another one. So you get 15 Icons instead, all packaged neatly in a two-minute video and itemized after the jump. It’s our gift to you. You’re welcome. And ho ho ho.

ICONS PAST. The Sugar Plum Fairy was born more than a century ago, the product of an odd three-way between two Russians (balletmaster Marius Petipa and classical music icon Pyotr Ilyich Tchaikovsky) and a German horror novelist (E.T.A. Hoffman, author of the much darker story on which The Nutcracker ballet was based). She has since become the fairy to end all fairies and arguably the most celebrated holiday icon behind Santa Claus and, well, Jesus. And you can’t make it through a holiday season without hearing “The Dance of the Sugar Plum Fairy” music hawking butter or cars or Holiday-shaped diamonds.
Icon Count: 4 (The Sugar Plum Fairy, Tchaikovsky, “Dance of the Sugar Plum Fairy” music, The Nutcracker ballet)

ICONS PRESENT. Nothing like the now, and the royal purple box from the haut chocolatier Vosges is now what the baby blue Tiffany box was during the bygone era of American Excess. Only the Vosges box is way better—you can’t eat what comes in a Tiffany box. The only thing better than getting a purple box full of Vosges chocolate is eating Vosges chocolate while wearing a vintage Geminola gown—Nicole Kidman, Naomi Watts, Heidi Klum, Sarah Jessica Parker, and the stylists of Elle and Sex and the City will concur. On the clothing, anyway. No proof they all dig the chocolate, but we’re willing to bet ...
Icon Count: 2 (Geminola, Vosges Haut Chocolat)

ICONS FUTURE. Austin McCormick started Baroque dance training in California at the age of 8. Multiple grants, a degree from Julliard, and several performances with the Metropolitan Opera Ballet of New York later, Austin seemed poised to become a dance icon of his own. But he had greater designs, like dance world domination, and he needed an army to do it. So he assembled a killer team of the sexiest young dancers (Laura Careless, Yeva Glover, Gioia Marchese, and Davon Rainey), stylists (costume designer Olivera Gajic and makeup/hair artist Sarah Cimino), and musicians (cellist Raphael Dubbe and composer Andrew Przbytkowski) into a single cross-genre, corset-clad-if-not-nearly-naked performance machine called Company XIV. It has been a meteoric pace of achievement since the Company’s birth: In a little more than three years, Company XIV has secured multiple international performance tours; starred in a dance film that premiered at the Lincoln Center for the Performing Arts and that continues to screen globally; earned the respect of the New York Times and the Village Voice; and signed with McDonald/Selznick and Assosiates, the most prestigious dance reps in the US. Their styling: over the top. Their calling cards: sex, sensuality, excess, and high drama. Their path: skyward into the iconic stratosphere.
Icon Count: 9 (The members of Company XIV)

So there you have it—something classical for your conservative grandfather, something fashion-y for your clotheshorse sister, something sexed up for your hornball kid brother, something chocolate-y for everyone. A very merry Icon Redux to us all!

Special thanks to Jeff at Simonson Farms, Cranbury, NJ for providing the Christmas Tree.