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"The Nutcracker" in Paris

“The Nutcracker”
Paris Opera Ballet
Opéra Bastille
Paris, France
December 8, 2007

by Marc Haegeman
copyright 2007 by Marc Haegeman

Rudolf Nureyev never made it easy for himself or his dancers. The only thing that awaits Clara in his production of the “Nutcracker”, revived by the Paris Opera Ballet this December, is some fiendishly difficult choreography. The performance I saw at the Opéra Bastille on December 8 wasn’t one you wanted to reward with sweets and colourful presents, even if in a period once again riddled with social conflicts, strikes and canceled performances at the Opera, one is prepared to cut the dancers some slack.

Assorted Nuts

"The Nutcracker”                                                      
Olney Ballet Theatre   
Olney Theatre Center   
Olney, Maryland                     
December 22, 2007 

“The Nutcracker”
Maryland Youth Ballet
Parilla Performing Arts Center
Montgomery College
Rockville, Maryland 
December 23, 2007

by George Jackson
copyright 2007 by George Jackson

Waiting for friends from Europe in the Lincoln Center plaza on a sunny, windy and cool Saturday afternoon, Dec. 8, I couldn’t help but be aware of three rituals that are part of modern Christmas. Behind me was “Hansel and Gretel”, Humperdinck’s 1893 opera, snatches of which wafted out from a television monitor whenever someone opened a door to the Met’s lobby. To my right, around the New York State Theatre’s entrance, hawkers pushed tickets for “The Nutcracker”, the days’ second iteration of the ballet Balanchine made in 1954 to Tchaikovsky’s 1892 music. All around me, trundling bags and packages, people came from the season’s third and undoubtedly major family fetish – shopping. When my party of 4 arrived, not jet lagged and already started on sightseeing and the shopping, we had a late lunch, looked at Lincoln Center and decided that the older pair of tourists - an opera fan and a theater goer - would accompany me to the ballet that night; the younger pair wanted to hit the town. It turned out that New York City Ballet’s performance pleased my two companions, though I doubt that the experience will prompt them to attend more dance at home.

Onward to 3,000

2000th performance of "The Nutcracker"
New York City Ballet
New York State Theater
New York, NY
December 19, 2007

by Susan Reiter
copyright © 2007 by Susan Reiter

One assumes that plenty of people in the audience at Wednesday's 6 p.m. performance of "The Nutcracker" had selected that date without knowing it marked a milestone. And they would not have sensed that any occasion was being marked until early in the second act, when Maria Kowroski's Sugar Plum Fairy was welcoming the various delectable divertissements in honor of the arrival of Marie and the Nutcracker Prince. Suddenly, three Dewdrops appeared to dip in a révérence before her. The trio -- Ashley Bouder, Sterling Hyltin and Sara Mearns, proceeded to "share" this glorious role, dividing up its exhilarating, crystalline solo passages among them. There was even more to keep track of when it came to the Sugar Plum Fairy and her Cavalier; no fewer than twelve dancers performed where normally only two are required. These added surprises, as well as the wonderfully vibrant quality of the performances -- from the exemplary child performers as well as the company members -- made for a particularly festive performance of Balanchine's always beautiful and heartwarming masterwork.

Partisans

“The Nutcracker”
American Ballet Theatre
Opera House
Kennedy Center for the Performing Arts
Washington, DC
December 19, 2007

by George Jackson
copyright 2007 by George Jackson

Light in the firmament: ballet again has a star - a new sort, put there equally by partisans pro and con. The star’s name is Veronika Part and her status was engendered by a controversy that’s purely aesthetic - unlike that which surrounded flamboyant Anastasia Volochkova a couple of seasons ago. Part isn’t a publicity seeker. It is her dancing that divides both the applauding and the writing public. Critics have even called each other blind for failing to register the ballerina’s assets or lack thereof. At this performance of “The Nutcracker”, Part’s Sugar Plum Fairy prompted demonstrative clapping and sharp conversational clashes even with a non-ballet, predominantly holiday audience in the house. 

The Uses of Enchantment

"The Nutcracker"
American Ballet Theatre
Opera House
J.F. Kennedy Center for the Performing Arts
Washington, D.C.
December 18, 2007

by Alexandra Tomalonis
copyright 2007 by Alexandra Tomalonis

For decades, "The Nutcracker" has been a holiday staple in America, beloved of children, their parents, and ballet fans, partly because of the beautiful Tchaikovsky score, partly because it's become a holiday staple, and also because it's enchanting. Much of the magic is in the music, but there's also magic in the party scene (in theory) and its presentation of a perfect world where, for one night a year, everyone is nice to everyone else, and there's magic in the land of the Sugar Plum Fairy and the power of classical dancing. This is a formula that's worked for 50 years (the ballet was choreographed more than 100 years ago, but didn't become the ballet version of Holiday on Ice until fairly recently), it's how "Nutcracker" is usually advertised — and so, of course, it makes perfect sense that ballet companies have been taking out the magic and reducing "The Nutcracker" to a sallow, nasty little routine.

SFB’s “Nutcracker”—Still Elegant, Still Cool

“Nutcracker”
San Francisco Ballet
War Memorial Opera House
San Francisco, CA
December 15,2007

by Rita Felciano
copyright © Rita Felciano

Seeing three “Nutcrackers” in three days (Ballet San Jose, Mark Morris Dance Company and San Francisco Ballet) should cure anybody of ever going to see that Holiday treat again. At least, for the next ten years. Instead, I came away with a new respect for Tchaikovsky’s score, its subtle grace and its wondrous ability to shift moods and create atmosphere. Given the restrictions under which he was working, it seems nothing short of the miraculous that the composition became as masterful as it turned out to be. To hear the “Nutcracker” music interpreted by three different conductors—Dwight Oltman, Robert Cole, Gary Sheldon—also offered its own pleasure, independent from the dance on stage.

Aplomb

The Winter Performance
Kirov Academy of Ballet
Washington, DC
December 15, 2007

by George Jackson
copyright 2007 by George Jackson

Mishaps can make a performance. One did on this occasion: suddenly an audible scratch came from the loudspeaker system and then there was no sound whatsoever. The music stopped just as an adagio was starting. It was Vainonen’s very Grand Adagio for “The Nutcracker” which goes Petipa’s Rose Adagio one man better: five cavaliers prepare to raise the single ballerina, sparkling in her tutu, as high as the star atop the glistening Christmas tree. Perhaps the 1934 choreography’s intent too was to suggest the ascent of the Soviet star over Russia’s Czarist past and the then current capitalist competition. Whatever significance this passage was supposed to have, the ballerina knew instantly that the impulse to dance shouldn’t be aborted. She shot her line of five danseurs a commanding glance and without pause was lifted, no, soared into the air with her back proudly arched, one leg firmly bent beneath as hold for her partners’ hands and the other extended behind like a comet’s tail.

Prokofiev transformed

“The Snow Maiden”
English National Ballet
Coliseum
London, England
December 11 to 16, 2007

by John Percival
copyright 2007 by John Percival

Born in London 52 years ago, Michael Corder began his career with the Royal Ballet after training at their school, and almost at once made his first choreography for their apprentice group, his first professional ballet following not long after. Since then he has worked as dancer and choreographer with companies in Britain, Denmark, Hong Kong, Japan, Netherlands, Norway, Portugal and USA, creating more than fifty ballets, some pure dance (he has a flair for showing even inexperienced casts to good advantage), others to stories both familiar and original. He says he has long been attracted to Hans Christian Andersen's “The Snow Queen” as a subject; also that having already produced Prokofiev's “Romeo and Juliet” and “Cinderella” the composer's less often heard ballet music for “The Stone Flower” appealed to him too. That was written for an unfamiliar subject not necessarily suited to western audiences, but he thought that “the various rustic, magical and wintry sounding elements in the score seemed ... to lend themselves completely naturally to the requirements of the Snow Queen story”. And so it has proved, with Corder's own adaptation of the action for a three act ballet and the music arranged by the composer Julian Philips, using about two-thirds of "The Stone Flower" plus extracts from two operas and a symphony.

Connecting with the Past

"The River," "The Road of the Phoebe Snow," "Love Stories";
"Firebird," "The Groove to Nobody's Business," "Pas de Duke," "The Golden Section"
Alvin Ailey American Dance Theater
City Center
New York, NY
December 4 & 8 (matinee), 2007

by Susan Reiter
copyright © 2007 by Susan Reiter

Revivals, more than premieres, are proving to be the more noteworthy aspect of the current Ailey season. Several works that strongly evoke the particular moment in which they were created are providing these dancers with meaty interpretive challenges, while the two novelties tailor-made for these versatile and indefatigable performers have turned out to be once-over-lightly efforts that are amiable, mildly flavorful character studies weak on craft and focus -- and offering little evidence of any galvanizing purpose.

A New Company

Riedel Dance Theater

“A Journey of Redemption”

Joyce Soho

New York, NY

December 13, 2007

by Mary Cargill

copyright 2007 by Mary Cargill

Riedel Dance Theater "A Journey of Redemption" Joyce Soho New York, NY December 13, 2007 Jonathan Riedel, who danced with the Limón Company from 1996-2006, has set up his own company with some very fine dancers affiliated with Limón, Bill T. Jones, and other companies. His earlier choreography, danced both by Limón, and his own small group, was notable for its interest in characterization, mordant humor, and an unusual interest in the themes of repentance, salvation, and grace. Riedel’s new dances performed at the Joyce Soho, “Inferno”, “Out of the Silent Planet”, and “The Four Loves”, have developed the more philosophical angle, while, in these three works at least, moving away from the specific characterization that made his Edward Gorey-based dances so witty.