The Nutcracker is magical
james.miller@ok.bc.ca
There’s just something magical about the classics. Whether it’s 1939 Hollywood movies like The Wizard of Oz and Gone with the Wind or a 19th century ballet like The Nutcracker, you can’t take your eyes off the screen or stage even though you’ve seen them dozens of times.
In the case of the Canadian School of Ballet in collaboration with Ballet Kelowna, we’ve seen The Nutcracker 27 times during the Christmas season. Yet this weekend’s four performances set a new record, selling out days before Friday’s premiere, evidence of the production’s continuing popularity.
It’s not hard to see why: cute kids pouring out of a humungous skirted lady and prancing around the stage, senior students showing unlimited promise and consumate professional dancers demonstrating their considerable skills in the only classic ballet they will have this year.
The two-hour performance, with intermission, is like one long fireworks display with dazzling costume colours and sprays of dancers erupting everywhere. In case you’ve forgotten, The Nutcracker is an endless stream of dancing whether it’s a solo, a pair, a trio or groups of performers, sometimes what seems like a cast of thousands coming and going. No one will fall asleep.
Put it this way, the program needs two pages to list all of the participants by grouping or for a specific segment. The second act, in particular, is like a ballet showcase for the benefit of daughter Clara and the Nutcracker Prince with appearances by chefs, classic ballerinas, and Spanish, Arabian, Russian and Chinese ethnic performers. The spectacle also features angels, snowflakes, gingerbread figures, toy soldiers, mice, rats, flower girls, candy canes, dolls and clowns.
Everyone has their moment, their chance to share the spotlight, making it a perfect venue for the hard-working students from the Canadian School of Ballet. As students mature, they go from playing the scurrying mice to meticulously choreographed group numbers to major roles.
You get to witness those burgeoning talents from scene to scene.
While students are constantly entertaining, the professional dancers from Ballet Kelowna are magnificent. When Sugar Plum Fairy (Desiree Bortolussi) and Cavalier (Valentin Chou) perform their Grand Pas de Deux (literally big step of two), it is a perfect pairing of foundation and flowing sculpture, the highlight for me. They then take turns with solos and it almost turns into a friendly competition on who can perform the best spins, leaps and other artistic moves.
Some will no doubt say: “Oh, they’re presenting the same thing year after year so it’s easy for them.” That couldn’t be further from the truth. You can’t imagine how many hours, weeks, months it took to achieve such perfect synchronicity in everything from pairs to the group dances.
Not only is everyone focused on doing their very best but from the looks on their faces, they are having fun while doing what they love so passionately.
To give credit where credit is due, the staging is by school co-directors Carley Bailey and Regeanna Stubel with additional choreography by Simone Orlando, Ballet Kelowna’s artistic director. There are new sets and great costumes to boot.
The one shortcoming is only four performances with every ticket snatched up. Perhaps they could sell tickets to the dress rehearsal. It was that good.
Although the original 1892 production was not a success, the 20-minute suite that Pyotr Ilyich Tchaikovsky extracted from the ballet received lavish praise almost immediately.
The Nutcracker has enjoyed enormous popularity since the late 1960s and is now performed by countless ballet companies, primarily during the Christmas season, and especially in North America. Major American ballet companies now generate around 40 per cent of their annual ticket revenues from performances of The Nutcracker.