Heather Ogden reflects on 20 years of dancing the Sugar Plum Fairy
The Canadian ballet dancer discusses the magic of The Nutcracker, plus, she makes a special announcement
For 20 years, National Ballet of Canada principal dancer Heather Ogden has been performing the role of the Sugar Plum Fairy in the enduring holiday classic The Nutcracker.
While Ogden estimates that she's danced the part more than 100 times since 2001, she says it never really gets easier.
"It's hard every single year, it's just that when things are hard, you kind of know how to deal with them," she tells Q's Tom Power in an interview. "Things happen and you have to adapt."
One of the most remarkable things about James Kudelka's production of The Nutcracker (which has been staged in Toronto since 1995) is that it puts children on stage front and centre. Around 100 kids from Canada's National Ballet School dance in this production as lambs, chefs, mice, dogs and everything in between.
Ogden says she's always happy to help these new dancers by passing on little tips and tricks she's picked up over the last two decades. "I have a whole bag of tricks," she says.
While the industry is known for being very competitive, with dancers facing a lot of pressure, she says when you're young, you're not as scared. She remembers her first year performing in The Nutcracker as an understudy.
"Halfway through the run they decided to put us on," she recalls. "So I was still doing, you know, character roles in the first act. And I remember having a costume fitting for the Sugar Plum Fairy, which is the most exquisite costume…. I just remember the magic of it. It was a lot of pressure, but I was so young, I kind of didn't realize it."
Another one of Ogden's best-known roles is Odette/Odile in the ballet Swan Lake. In her conversation with Power, Ogden announced that she will be dancing Swan Lake for the last time in March 2025.
"I'm going to say goodbye to the role of Odette/Odile," she says. "I'm going to continue dancing with the company — I'm not finishing up — but I am going to pay tribute to this role and do my last shows of Odette/Odile…. There'll be new Swan Queens and new Odette/Odiles, and I'm very excited for them. And I'm excited to kind of close my Swan Lake chapter."
The full interview with Heather Ogden is available on our podcast, Q with Tom Power. Listen and subscribe wherever you get your podcasts.
Interview with Heather Ogden produced by Cora Nijhawan.
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