There is a powerful dramatic expressiveness in the large opposition between the so-to-speak forest-thick pantomime that fills the first act and leads only to a small clearing where snowflakes dance, and the spaciousness of the second act, with its clear dances that appear and disappear as free as the shapes in the sky.
--Edwin Denby on George Balanchine's The Nutcracker, Center, March 1954
I don't have a great deal to add to my previous posts about The Nutcracker (Dec.24 2015, Dec. 27 2017, Dec.28, 2018); it is as glorious and beautiful as ever and each time I see it I discover new details in this impressively structured work. Some people call it magical but I think of "magical" as a contrived attempt the fool the audience and except for the one movement of the Sugarplum Fairy across the stage on point while remaining still as a statue (the floor moves underneath her) -- a movement that Balanchine added years after the ballet's premiere and, I think, would have eventually removed -- there's nothing faked or phony in this exquisite ballet of feeling and emotion.
Balanchine danced in the original ballet when he was a young student in St. Petersburg and the current choreography includes much of what Balanchine remembers, with considerable speed and complexity added; like many Balanchine ballets it is original but based on Balanchine's extensive knowledge of the steps and the history, giving it the classical quality of much of Balanchine's choreography. The Sugarplum Fairy and her Cavalier were beautifully danced by soloists Emilie Gerrity and Jovani Furlan. Conductor Clotilde brought out all the warmth and richness of Tschaikovsky's music and the gorgeous costumes were by Karinska, who played an important role in Balanchine's work,
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