It’s not hard to imagine that there must be company dancers who secretly (or not so secretly) dread the annual return of the industrial run that is The Nutcracker, who know every moment of it by heart, who’ve progressed upwards through the roles over the course of a ballet career, from a cute baby mouse to a Flower or a Snowflake, or even the dizzying glitter of Sugar Plum herself. Perhaps it’s possible even to resent this one ballet’s ability to gather audiences from far and wide, when other oeuvre can be overlooked. Sure. We get it. Small blame to the company if they feel a bit ‘bah humbug’ about the whole spectacular, glittery affair.
But let’s not be Scrooge about it either. To bring to this well-loved classic a zest and freshness and to know that one is creating magic for an audience filled with the excitement of the holiday season, is always desirable, and I get the impression that the Kansas City Ballet, with Devon Carney’s charming production to rely on, manage to achieve that year after year. Even more arresting is the fact that any of the twenty-five performances from now until Christmas evening might be the first (and in some cases only ) ballet for some impressionable young children, and that they will invariably be smitten by its lovely dancing, relatable narrative and superb theater. Self-inflating Christmas tree? Check. Snow on the stage? Check. Flying toy maker with a cloak for wings? Check. Hot air balloon? Check. (This is Kansas, after all). Suspend our collective, cynical disbelief for 2.5 hours: let’s relive the magic of childhood all over again!
On serious notes, though, this ballet makes for a privileged seasonal rite of passage for young people in the United States of America, that not all art forms possess. First opera for children? First symphony? Not quite the same obvious answer emerges. I had a chance to observe novelty first-hand, because I brought along a neophyte, my four-year-old son: he was dazzled throughout, and burst into frenzied applause even before the closing chords. His first but not his only ballet for sure.
There’s plenty of pretty and pretty-sweet throughout, of course (oh I actually want those Reindeer booties), but it helps that Carney’s production has its moments of wit and irreverence, to offset all that sweetness, especially in the first act where he has more narrative leeway. There’s the old couple on their ear, indulging in a bit of tipsy dancing, and then that little extra bit of stage business I noticed, the starched and flummoxed maid (Amanda DeVenuta), put in charge of the bear on a leash, but who ends up charged off staged by said unpredictable creature. Later she will also be (one imagines fruitlessly) chasing the recalcitrant bed-bound Fritz. And on the note of poor, little Fritz (poor Fritz!), the least favored child who just wants some attention, there was a nice little sop thrown to him, when Dr Drosselmeier gave him the troublesome rabbit that popped out of his hat, before he departed.
Then there were the wildly wonderful, preposterously uncouth Mice, all twenty of them, quite a male force on the stage, in massive mousy costumes, equipped with oversize broken spoons, forks and pens that they use as weapons. The Nutcracker and soldiers are quite unattractively stolid, by comparison, as far as we are concerned; all they have to do is march in time. The death of the Mouse King and the self-adjustment of his ‘corpse’ in his carriage (a sardine tin) is a hilarious little bit of theater. (In Act II, when Aidan Duffy, the Nutcracker Prince gives his mime rendition of this scene, it fillets all the fun out of it, inevitably; Carney is secretly on the side of the Mice, I think).
Samantha Lopez-Duarte’s Clara was a lovely, ardent and expressive dancer, and fitted the part to perfection. Naomi Tanioka and Gavin Abercrombie, as Sugar Plum & Cavalier, were lovely to watch: clean, crisp lines, controlled turns and holds, very polished. Whitney Huell had marvelous sinuous litheness as the Arabian demoiselle, acrobatically transferred to Andrew Vecseri, Angelin Carrant, Jake Lapham, Troy Monger-Levin in an effortless way that drew gasps from the audience. More suspension of disbelief. Do bodies actually weigh in ballet space?
Conductor Ramona Pansegrau kept the KC Symphony at a good, brisk pace, and brought out all the charms of Tchaikovsky’s well-known score. An engaging evening. ‘I had the best time’ was my four-year-old’s review.
