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One day after it was allegedly stolen, a moving truck storing “irreplaceable” sets and backdrops for an Ontario-wide tour of The Nutcracker has been recovered, according to the head of the ballet company.
“Someone stole Christmas, and now it’s back on,” Bengt Jörgen, artistic director and CEO for Jörgen Dance, told CBC Radio’s Metro Morning Tuesday.
The company had issued a public plea Monday for anyone who saw the 26-foot truck to report it to police, saying it contained “the heart of our Ontario-wide holiday tour.”
Ballet Jörgen is set to perform the classic holiday ballet throughout late November and December to audiences everywhere from Burlington to Orillia to Ottawa. The ballet company had vowed to go ahead with Tuesday’s scheduled show in Burlington, even if the sets weren’t recovered.
Jörgen said it would have been “a tough slog,” and he’s relieved the show will now be performed “exactly as it should be, with full sets and costumes opening for a full house.”
The company’s general manager Stephen Word said previously security camera footage showed the company’s rental storage truck was stolen around 3:30 a.m. Monday from where it was parked in Etobicoke.
Jörgen said they got a call late Monday night from Peel Regional Police saying officers had found the truck in Brampton, and members of his company started celebrating “like we won the World Cup or something.”
CBC Toronto has reached out to police to confirm the truck’s recovery.
Offers immediately came in to help replace set
Jörgen Dance’s academy director, Clea Iveson, says she spent Monday scrambling to find “alternative solutions” to put on a show without a set.
After 17 years of hosting the same Nutcracker set, Alberta Ballet recently decided to present a new version of the classic. (Supplied by Alberta Ballet)
“It was just a day of being creative … like, what are we going to do if we don’t have a sleigh? They’re going to have to walk. It’s not right,” she said Tuesday. “When we did finally get that call [the truck had been found] I literally sort of collapsed.”
Alberta Ballet, which was founded in 1966 in Edmonton, was among the ballet productions looking to help Jörgen Dance wherever possible.
“We all know what a Nutcracker means for a ballet company,” said Francesco Ventriglia, Alberta Ballet’s artistic director. “This is the most beloved title of the year, and we all have a huge expectation [around] it.”
After 17 years of hosting the same Nutcracker set, Alberta Ballet recently decided to present a new version of the classic. So, they had an older, no-longer-used set in storage. That’s when Ventriglia and his coworkers realized they could help out.
“With our spirit that we have in this industry and in the community to stand up for each other, we just decided to immediately send a letter, an e-mail,” he told CBC Toronto. ” It was very natural to look at each other and say ‘We are in the possibility of the help. Let’s offer the help.'”
Before the truck was found, several people contacted the company offering to help build replacement sets, Jörgen said.
“We got so many offers of support. People were actually building sleighs for us overnight,” he said. “I almost feel guilty now because they’re not needed.”
But David Rademaker, a contractor and father of one of the show’s dancing woodland creatures who volunteered to build the replacement sleigh, said he wasn’t disappointed his handiwork wouldn’t be on stage. He said he was happy to step up when things were in doubt, happier still the show’s set was found intact, and happiest of all he was getting to see his daughter perform this week.
“I’m ecstatic. We’ll be going both nights,” he said, adding he was only a little tired from working on the sleigh late Monday night and early Tuesday morning.
“I might have a nap when I get home before [the show].”