Nacho Duato's "the Nutcracker"

Last week, Nacho Duato's new Nutcracker premiered at the Mikhialovsky Theater. A few days before, the company had a general rehearsal (dress rehearsal) that people could come and watch, and the older students from the academy were invited to attend.

I had seen these posters advertising the production but had been concerned that I wouldn't get to see Duato's Nutcracker because of conflicts with rehearsals. The invitation to attend the general rehearsal fixed that. Since all of the older students had been invited, the academy administrators didn't schedule any rehearsals for that evening so that everyone would be able to go and watch.

Most of the international trainees took advantage of the opportunity and came to watch the show. Here I am (second from the left, wearing a less-than-fancy outfit consisting of a yellow shirt over a turtleneck leotard) with a few of my fellow trainees. On the right are Federico (Italy) and Jane (Finland); on the left is Maria (who has lived in at least three countries, most recently France).

Even before the start of the show, I could see that a lot of effort and resources had been poured into this production; the new Nutcracker even got it's own special curtain. The Russian name of the ballet, «Щелкунчик,» was spelled out across the curtain in letters made from a lighter-colored, translucent fabric, surrounded by a splattering of stars made from the same material. A spotlight shone from behind the curtain, illuminating the letters and stars. The spotlight moved back and forth, so one area was always more brightly illuminated than the rest. It looked almost like the stars were sparkling.

The ballet itself was overall very good, especially the party and battle scenes. I'm usually not particularly fond of the party scene, but Duato created one that was visually engaging and that didn't feel forced or faked. The scenery, while still beautiful and plentiful enough to give the scene its setting, was tastefully minimalized so as not to take away from the dancing. Most of the visual interest was provided by the costumes of the dancers and the props that they used as they danced, which kept my attention on the dancers.

Battle scene was my favorite part of the whole production. The darkened stage contained no props. Lights shone from the sides cast crisscrossing shadows everywhere. In the back of the stage was a curtain with stars (like those on the first curtain- made to be lit from behind) arranged in the shape of a Christmas tree. When the battle began, my eyes were glued to the stage. Sometimes only the mice were visible, sometimes only the soldiers, and sometimes both, but it always felt like a battle and was never boring. The Nutcracker doll's transformation into the Nutcracker prince was an especially good part; after Masha ran off the stage with the doll, the mouse king in pursuit of the pair, she reappeared and ran across the stage again, but the Nutcracker doll that she was carrying had gotten slightly larger. This repeated several times until Masha eventually was carrying a doll nearly as big as herself. When she appeared from the wings again, it was a real person, the dancer playing the Nutcracker prince, that she dragged behind her by the hand.

For the snow scene and the dances in the final act of the ballet, I prefer more traditional versions of the choreography over Duato's version. That is not to say that there were not things about the new version that I did not enjoy. There were some very beautiful moments in the snow scene and a really interesting use of scenery and lack thereof during the third act. Each short dance (Chinese, Spanish, Arabian, etc.) had one or two big props or pieces of scenery that were on stage only for that dance. The scenery for waltz of the flowers was much more elaborate and extremely beautiful, including a giant pink cupcake and scenery that reminded me of carefully cut paper lace. The main critique that I have of the second half of the ballet is that it was the scenery, rather than the choreography, which I found notable. While the choreography from the first half of the ballet was very different from anything I'd seen before, the choreography from the second half felt like it relied too much on older versions of the ballet, which disappointed me.

I'm extremely glad that I had the opportunity to see this ballet. The dancers, especially those in the principal roles, were extremely talented, and it was especially exciting to get to see the new choreography before the actual premiere of the ballet (which happened a few days later).