La Jornada: Achieving maximum coordination, a challenge in Tchaikovsky’s classic: Elisa Ramos

The first time that Elisa Ramos, a dancer with the National Dance Company (CND), performed The nutcracker, a Tchaikovsky classic, she was just 13 years old and a budding ballet student. Since then, she fell in love with the play, and after 22 years of being part of the cast, she is still as enthusiastic as the first time.

“This edition is special for me, because I always look forward to sharing dance with the 10,000 people who attend each performance,” he commented.

Ramos has played practically all the characters in the play: mouse, little angel, guest girl, soldier, candy, flower dance group, flakes and Clara, for many years. This time she will play the Snow Queen and the Sugar Plum Fairy.

“Clara is a role that I treasure because she accompanied me for a long time in my career, but being part of the corps de ballet left me with great learnings. It’s about developing a sixth sense: it’s not about following a line, it’s about thinking like 32 other dancers, breathing the same, dancing together.”

One of the biggest challenges of this piece, he said, is achieving synchronicity between the dancers. “This maximum coordination means that even if you only look each other in the eyes, you already understand everything the other is feeling.”

The nutcracker It is possibly one of the first works with which the public has contact with ballet, a reality that for Ramos implies a deep responsibility: “whether the public understands and enjoys a story depends on what I do. I have to do my job very well to inspire.”

Ramos compares ballet to high-performance sports, since both athletes and dancers have to adapt to the changes in their body and the demands of the discipline: “Now I am in a great moment, because I have experience and my body is still in a position to continue.”

Of all the scenes in the story, there are two that have marked it in a special way. The first, when they give Clara her nutcracker; the second, when it comes to life. “His gift, his favorite doll, imagine! Seeing him your size, flesh and blood, in love with you, and willing to take you to marvelous worlds. It’s a very exciting moment.”

Over two decades, Ramos has witnessed the technical evolution of the show, the change of cast and the rotation of roles among the dancers. “It is a living art, no matter how much we repeat a season, it will never be the same; it always has a different magic.”

On the eve of the start of the 2025 season, from December 18 to 23 at the National Auditorium, the experienced dancer invited families to accompany them to enjoy the show.

“To those who may have never had an introduction to ballet, who may be afraid and think that they will not understand it, I would say not to be afraid. It is a noble ballet for someone who is curious.”