Review: Heralding the Holidays with THE NUTCRACKER and the American Repertory Ballet

The American Repertory Ballet (ARB) is heralding the Christmas season with their production of the Nutcracker through December 20th. Dance fans will relish that the company's set designs and Artistic Director, Douglas Martin's choreography have grown more sumptuous with time. But what has stayed constant is the quirky, jubilant qualities of the show's first half and the impressively synchronized duets and set pieces of the second. First a little narrative fun, and then the real feats of dance.

The story that the Nutcracker tells can be summed up in a few paragraphs of program space, or a sentence-and-a-half of this review. Young Clara attends her prosperous family's Christmas party, is given a nutcracker doll by her beloved Uncle Drosselmeyer, and is transported to a winter dreamland in the company of the Nutcracker, now given life and transformed into a handsome prince. Children of all ages can grasp this, but no adult, of any age, should underestimate it. The Nutcracker is the first place where most Americans will encounter both Tchaikovsky and classical ballet. But the plot of the Nutcracker, like the plot of Swan Lake, can also offer some interesting possibilities for expression and idiosyncrasy, if within bounds.

In handling the early party scenes, the ARB uses a brand of comedy that is more quietly endearing than laugh-out-loud. The adults are played with equal measures of pretension and charm. And thanks to the Princeton Ballet School, The Nutcracker has a small army of talented youngsters that appear relaxed and at ease even when moving in tight formation. In mood, it isn't too far from a present-day holiday get-together, cheerful awkwardness and all. Clara's dream, for its part, begins with a fight between giant rats and pint-sized soldiers that look a lot like department store toys thanks to the clever costuming of Lowell A. Mathrich and Gina Ricca.

Fun for the kids, but how does the Nutcracker keep the adults in their seats, other than keeping the kids in theirs? Somewhere, a choreographer with art-house presumptions must be dying to turn this harmless story into a dark psychodrama. ARB's Artistic Director Douglas Martin operates by trusting his dancers and by delicately inserting a few sights and sequences that would work in a more modern ballet, in fact in any ballet. As usual, the toughest routines are reserved for the Sugar Plum Fairy and her Cavalier (Monica Giragosian and Stephen Campanella in my McCarter Playhouse showing). Their climactic pas de deux was met with repeated applause, and something tells me it wasn't mostly children clapping.

Even in the background, though, there is dance and movement to admire. Late in Clara's dream, dancers that represent flowers populate the Nutcracker. They could just stand there and look pretty, but instead they group into cylindrical arrangements that pulse in and out, arms raised, twining, and trailing like the arms of sea anemones. It's one of the gentlest sights in this production, but one that will stay with you as you make your way to the train, the car, or perhaps to one of your theatre's area restaurants to relish the joys of the show.

American Repertory Ballet's production of the Nutcracker will be performed at venues across New Jersey through December 20th. They include theatre locations in Trenton, South Orange, Manasquan and New Brunswick. A holiday tradition since 1964, ARB's is the longest-running Nutcracker production in New Jersey and one of the longest consecutively running in the United States. For a full schedule, visit their web site at www.arballet.org/Nutcracker or call 732.249.1254.

Photo Credit: Richard Termine

To post a comment, you must register and login.