Comic actor allows dancers to bring 'Nutcracker' characters to life

BalletMet Columbus dancers are well-trained and highly skilled.

Precision, coordination and body control are part and parcel of the application of their skill.

It’s Robert Post’s job to make them even better. More accurately, Post’s goal is to enhance already high-quality dance with movement that helps bring characters to life.

Post, a comic actor who specializes in movement and physicality, was invited by BalletMet artistic director Gerard Charles about 10 years ago to begin working with the company to better tell the stories that drive the dance

Post studied Absurdist Literature at Ohio State University and later developed his skill in pantomime under legendary theater artist Tony Montanaro. Post’s one-man shows are inventive and goofy, often including quick character changes and elements of vaudeville. His focus has always been using these skills to tell a story or make a statement.

Post told The Beat that he and Charles focused their efforts for this year’s production of The Nutcracker on the ballet’s second act. Clara’s transformation into an older girl, her relationship with the Nutcracker and linking the opulent set pieces that take up much of Act II (“It’s almost like a variety show.”) were addressed in ways that allow the story to both link and flow.

“We wanted to make the story not only more clear but also more fun and interesting,” Post said.

Post works with the dancers — both from the professional company but also the young dancers from the BalletMet dance Academy, whose participation in this production is traditional and important — on ways to tell the story through movement that wasn’t part of their technical training.

“These are world-class dancers,” Post explained. “But we’re presenting a story ballet. And nobody’s talking. So we work on how to have the dancers move in ways that overlap and blend dance and acting to display sometimes complicated characters.”

He said the dancers understand and appreciate the process. He also said that dancers who come to BalletMet and work this way for the first time can see in the veteran dancers the fruits of their labor. Post hopes audiences do as well.

“We’re adding a layer to the performance that hopefully the audience will see but not notice,” he said. “The dancers work very hard so it appears organic.”