Holiday season or Nutcracker season? They seem to be the same this time of the year. All around the country, versions of the ballet are performed by stars in professional dance companies and youngsters in student recitals. Thousands of people who've never seen another ballet see this one, sometimes because they are taking their children to it as a Christmas treat. Nevada Ballet Theatre's recent production at the Rio's Samba Theatre exemplifies the main reason this ballet has become an American tradition: family.
Although revisionist productions have laced The Nutcracker with Freudian symbolism and, as in Mark Morris's Hard Nut, sex and drugs, NBT's choreographer Bruce Steivel and most others still follow the original, with its emphasis on family unity, hospitality and fantasy.
Premiered in 1842 in St. Petersburg, Russia, the familiar story concerns little Clara and Fritz falling asleep after a Christmas party and dreaming that the Nutcracker Prince protects them in a battle with mice and then transports them to the magical Kingdom of Sweets.
In the beginning, children weren't as prominent in the ballet as they are now. Their roles were taken by adults. It was George Balanchine's 1954 New York production that first utilized large numbers of children, most of them his students. This provided the youngsters with stage experience and also pleased parents who, understandably, were eager to see the results of all those expensive lessons. It's the same today, except standards are higher. The 150 students of NBT's academy who took part in this year's Nutcracker were required to execute complex ballet choreography, which they did with exceptional skill.
Over time, much of the original choreography has been lost and contemporary stagings, while retaining the original characters, have had to provide new dances. Steivel's were refreshing and faithful in style to what we know of the original. Two of them, Act II's "Waltz of the Flowers" and a new grand pas de deux (a dance in which two dancers perform together and have solos), were dazzling on opening night, featuring Tess Hooley and Zeb Nole, a former NBT academy student.
Just as the children provided youthful exuberance, Hooley and Nole delivered mature classical elegance, technical assurance and mutually effortless partnering. This year, the choreography made particular demands on timing, with spectacular overhead lifts executed at the peak of crescendos, and split-second support of the ballerina as she ended her fouettes, a series of turns on one toe propelled by a whipping action of the free leg.
The best known section of Tchaikovsky's melodic score is "Waltz of the Flowers." It was also NBT's best ensemble dance, with newly invented patterns of crossed rows of dancers alternately rising and descending while moving in a circle.
America has a melting pot history and most productions of the Nut, as it's affectionately called by dancers, enhance their popular appeal with the inclusion of national dances. This season, NBT's were a spirited quartet of Spanish, Arabian, Chinese and Russian.
Although nothing can satisfactorily replace a live orchestra, many Nutcracker productions have to rely on taped music, as did NBT's, until a few years ago. This year, the company's orchestra had a new conductor, Asher Raboy, and the number of players was increased from 29 to 35. The sound was rich, particularly in the string section, but the tempos for some solos were too slow for dancing comfort.
Sets and costumes are another luxury not every troupe can afford, nor could NBT at one time. Balanchine's lauded innovation of dressing his dancers in leotards and tights actually began as a budgetary consideration. NBT now commissions Parisian designer Alexandre Vassiliev to dress its Nutcracker dancers and stage. His voluptuous Arabian Nights setting for Act II, emblazoned with golden crescents above and below, drew gasps from the audience.
A live orchestra, fabulous scenery and costumes, its own academy: Who would have thought it possible 32 years ago when a handful of unpaid dancers began giving the free concerts that eventually became Nevada Ballet Theatre.