As a dancer, The Nutcracker was always my favorite ballet to perform. I knew that there was always someone in the audience experiencing ballet and falling in love with it for the first time. For those of us passionate about ballet thriving for a diverse 21st century audience, a question we often find ourselves asking is, “How do we bring more people into our world?”

In 2017, I was invited by then-Artistic Director of New York City Ballet Peter Martins to discuss the problematic depictions of the non-European cultures in the second act of Balanchine’s holiday masterpiece The Nutcracker. (In the second act dancers perform choreography inspired by delicious treats from different cultures.) Balanchine’s caricatured depiction of Chinese culture, which had been a part of the production since the 1950s, felt incongruent with Martins’ mission to share the ballet with more people. With elongated eyes, Fu Manchu mustache, painted yellow faces, and rice paddy hats, surely this wasn’t the best way to show “Chinese” to an increasingly diverse audience?

Following our conversation where I shared suggestions for how to make subtle changes to the make-up, the costuming, and the choreography, I launched Final Bow for Yellowface (www.yellowface.org) with a simple pledge: that we would no longer do caricatured stereotypes of Asian people on our stages (“Yellowface”). At this point, almost every major American ballet company has signed on. The challenge is NOT to cancel the choreography, but instead to find a new and better ways to represent Chinese heritage.

My favorite prompt when faced with this creative challenge of reimagining something problematic is, “What Else Could It Be?” Think back to your childhood and you’re playing Pretend: a pen is not just a pen, but could also be…a magic wand! Or a rocket ship! Or a lightsaber! We needed to tap into that creative playful thinking again when working to reimagine “Chinese Tea.”

The pastel sets and overall confectionary look of Oregon Ballet Theater’s production required finding a congruent symbol from Chinese culture that was playful and fun while being respectful. What Else Could it Be? Recalling my own childhood in Hong Kong, one of my favorite treats were White Rabbit candies — milky chewy nougat covered in edible rice paper, wrapped in graphic red, white, and blue paper. This seemed like the perfect representation; white rabbits in Chinese culture are a symbol of longevity, elegance, mercy, and beauty, and considered one of the luckiest animals in the zodiac. With its big split jumps and spritely hops around the stage, a rabbit was the perfect animal to execute the playful Balanchine choreography.

We also wanted to make sure we were honoring the Balanchine tradition while reimagining this divertissement. One small detail I always found charming was that Barbara Karinska, Balanchine’s long-time collaborator and the original costume designer for his Nutcracker, loved to sew the word’s “Balanchine” somewhere in the costumes as an easter egg. In redesigning the costumes for Tea, OBT costume designer Emma Kingsbury makes a similar nod, sewing “巴兰钦” (“Balanchine” in Chinese) into the design of the tutus. Can you spot them?

But what If people didn’t grow up eating White Rabbits like I did? I worried that people might not get why this is a stand-in for Chinese culture, despite every Chinese friend I shared it with immediately delighting in seeing a part of their childhood reflected in this new design. But perhaps this is an opportunity to learn about real Chinese heritage — culture after all is meant to be shared. Maybe pick up some White Rabbit candies next time you are at the Asian grocery store! Alongside the new Turkish Delight variation as a reimagining of “Arabian,” I hope you find a new magic in the White Rabbit variation while still being able to appreciate the original and timeless Balanchine masterpiece.