Years ago, juggler and unicyclist Darren Peterson created the holiday show The Mutt-cracker (SWEET!) to showcase the unique abilities of his trained rescue dogs. After doing a few different versions of the show, Darren and his animals ended up at the VORTEX, where The Mutt-cracker has become an unlikely holiday tradition.
“I am absolutely stunned every year that the VORTEX is willing to do this again,” Peterson says. “But it's no surprise because the audiences really do love it.”
Now in its thirteenth(!) year at the VORTEX, The Mutt-cracker is what Peterson calls “a circus extravaganza” – it’s a loose retelling of the familiar Nutcracker story told through song, dance, circus acts, and of course, dog tricks.
“My two newer dogs are just incredible,” Peterson sats, “They do new stuff every single day that I think, I could put that in the show. And if I could just… get them to, you know, not come and lick my face in the middle of all of their playing, you know, that would be awesome. So, and that really is my goal, is to get that joy that we have training into the actual show.”
The basic premise of The Mutt-cracker remains the same, but the show’s always different from year to year. “It changes every single year because we have a different mix of circus performers,” says writer and director Melissa McKnight. “I do rewrites every year. I try and add in new elements, new songs, new music, new dance every year. So if you're coming, you might see kind of the same container with the show, but there will always be something new and surprising. And also I’ve got to credit Darren for a lot of that because he's always got these wild and wacky ideas that we brainstorm about and then I go back to my little writing nook and like just kind of make it work this year.”
Peterson says he loves the way McKnight constructs the show every year. “It's really just the best package I can imagine for the dog tricks,” he says. Peterson’s approach to dog training is to keep the dogs engaged but happy, which means they’re going to do some tricks but also just be dogs while they’re onstage. “The dogs, you know, go to the actors and lick their faces and wanna get pets right in the middle of the show,” he says. “So we're putting some moments where that can happen. And yeah, it just really shows the joy that the dogs have. The general thinking for animal acts is don't distract them, don't let them think that they're gonna get reinforcement from anywhere else. And that is not the case here.”
'The Mutt-cracker (SWEET!)' is onstage at the VORTEX December 20 - January 4.
