‘Nutcracker’ entrances kids
San Francisco Ballet dedicated opening night of “The Nutcracker,” Wednesday, Dec. 12, to the memory of Jocelyn Vollmar, the company’s beloved former prima ballerina who died in July, at age 92. Vollmar was American’s first Snow Queen, in America’s first “Nutcracker,” premiered by the Ballet in 1944, and remembering her added significance to the nostalgia of the company’s lovely production. There was an equally lovely sense of goodwill among the audience, including an unusually large number of children for an evening show. The little ones provided running commentary (roughly half of the entertainment of any “Nutcracker” performance takes place in the seats). It’s wonderful to see a dance performance with people who are truly excited about it, even if they’re 5 years old.
Artistic Director Helgi Tomasson’s “Nutcracker” harks back to the San Francisco of a century ago, when the Panama-Pacific International Exhibition came to
town and electricity was the biggest tech news. During the Stahlbaums’ genteel Christmas party, daughter Clara (San Francisco Ballet School student Kyla Lisette Paez Marcus, radiant and self-assured in her role debut) receives a nutcracker doll from her Uncle Drosselmeyer (Val Caniparoli, a veteran who orchestrates the scene like a maestro), arousing the envy of younger brother Fritz (Sam Stampleman, impish as could be).
Beyond the transporting elegance of the party, what sets this production apart is the staging of Clara’s dream. I never tire of seeing the transformation of Clara’s home into an imagined world where the furniture is massive, mice are giants and people are tiny, and imagination is unleashed.
After Clara and the Nutcracker Prince defeat the nasty rodents and their campy Mouse King (Sean Orza), the prince is revealed to be Aaron Robison, who spent last season dancing with the English National Ballet in London, returning with sky-high jumps, pillow-soft landings and a pair of groovy sideburns. Drosselmeyer whisks the couple off to an audience with the Queen and King of the Snow, Mathilde Froustey and Carlo Di Lanno, whose mid-blizzard double tours (his) and fouetté turns (hers) earned a full-voiced “YES!” from the girl sitting behind me.
Act II is a victory celebration hosted by the Sugar Plum Fairy, danced by Sofiane Sylve with queenly benevolence as she whisked off pirouettes and grands jetés (she got an “Oh my goodness!” from the little boy in our row). Other highlights included WanTing Zhao in a supple Arabian dance, and spring-loaded jumpers Lonnie Weeks and Esteban Hernandez in the Chinese and Russian dances, respectively. Special honors go to Kimberly Marie Olivier, Maggie Weirich and Ami Yuki for the French variation, made cruelly difficult and needlessly risky by the long pink ribbons they twirl; rare is the performance without a ribbon mishap, but they pulled it off to perfection.
Robison and Sasha De Sola sparkled in the golden costumes of the grand pas de deux. I found the phrasing of her variation perplexing, but between her double fouettés, his tours de basque and their pair of perfect shoulder leaps, they had both young and old in the audience cheering . Tchaikovsky’s music is pure joy, and Ming Luke kept the orchestra lively.