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Pennsylvania Ballet's 'Nutcracker'
The gift that keeeps giving
LEWIS WHITTINGTON
George Balanchine’s Nutcracker is a huge annual holiday ornament that continues to entrance new audiences— especially young girls— into a world of romance and Christmas magic. For ballet companies desperate to meet annual budgets, it’s a gift that keeps giving. For the ballet masters and dancers, it’s a textbook exercise of classical vocabulary.
Balanchine streamlined the lugubrious evening-length fantasy for modern audiences while retaining the Russian royal ballet choreography of his childhood. There is enough theatricality, past any pristine choreography, to render this a ritualized cultural event. On a performance level, over a month of performances with a rotating lead cast, The Nutcracker is an important barometer of a company’s strengths and weaknesses.
A children’s show with technical challenges
Balanchine never lost sight of the fact that this is a children’s story, so reviewing The Nutcracker is more akin to covering a sporting event. The rows of kids in front of me were squirmy only toward the end, but through most of it they seemed interested.
Balanchine’s technical requirement for every level of dancer comes into play here. The Pennsylvania Ballet’s production more than covers its bases on this score, even though technically this pageant usually ranges all over the place and that was certainly true in the matinee performance I saw.
Act I offers a series of Fabergé cameos of Old World holiday pictures: parlor dances, socializing, games and the kids under the spell of the mysterious Herr Drosselmeier, who sets the fantasy in motion. Eleven-year-old Jacqueline Callahan and her young prince, Austin Thomas Butler, could very well be on their way to professional careers. They both danced the roles, when it’s more common that they are gesturally acted.
Snowflakes melting around the edges
The "Nutcracker Fantasy" is limply introduced with the mouse war, is always awkwardly staged. The ballet really begins with the snow scene at the end of Act I. Balanchine’s brilliant snowflakes provide a showcase for the female corps de ballet: What you look for here is crispness, the ethereal quality for those swirling ballerinas. What makes this section challenging is that the dancers, always moving in pretty unison, begin traversing in ever dizzying matrixes, so more can go wrong. For the matinee performance I saw (Dec. 10), the snowflakes were as pretty as ever, but their pacing was off and they started to melt around the edges.
Act II was ignited by Riolama Lorenzo’s Sugarplum Fairy, executing slowly paced pointe work in her angel’s solo, showing each step with unique pacing. It was intriguing to see this solo danced adagio, but focus got away from Lorenzo in the back half of the segment.
Amy Aldridge’s smoked in the Arabian dance “Coffee”: Her mysterious angles and sultry deportment almost made you miss her stellar technique. Aranxta Ochoa was a most regal dewdrop, with sharp pirouette runs and easy ballone in her series of stage exiting jetés. Gabriella Yudenich and Francis Veyette demonstrated great flair while leading the “Hot Chocolates” tarantella waltz. And Jermel Johnson, the company’s best jumper right now, threw huge lateral splits as “Tea.” The Sugarplum pas de deux contained thrilling moments: Lorenzo’s spins were centered and polished off, and James Ihde proved a most gallant cavalier. He didn‘t flinch when she galloped at him and leaped on his shoulders. (Balanchine had it in for the men, too.)
Second cast (December 28 performance)
Johnathan Stiles danced the soldier doll with much more precision and buoyancy than his earlier turn. Later in the run, those corps de ballet Snowflakes were still drifting a little, but they were definitely tighter. In this performance Riolama Lorenzo put her imprint on "Coffee" with voluptuous backbends, and Amy Aldridge’s dewdrop exuded sustained sparkle. Even with a minor flub in the Candy Canes hoop dance, Francis Veyette provided more than a satisfying sugar rush.
Principals Julie Diana and Zachary Hench danced their duet tentatively and eventually disastrously, with Diana dropping her fouettes and the pair colliding or tangling in key moments. What redeemed them in the audience’s eyes was their graceful fortitude through this most demanding pas de deux. Diana faired better in the introductory angel scene (in a completely different reading than Lorenzo's) with unfettered sustained pacing.
To read a response, click here.
LEWIS WHITTINGTON
George Balanchine’s Nutcracker is a huge annual holiday ornament that continues to entrance new audiences— especially young girls— into a world of romance and Christmas magic. For ballet companies desperate to meet annual budgets, it’s a gift that keeps giving. For the ballet masters and dancers, it’s a textbook exercise of classical vocabulary.
Balanchine streamlined the lugubrious evening-length fantasy for modern audiences while retaining the Russian royal ballet choreography of his childhood. There is enough theatricality, past any pristine choreography, to render this a ritualized cultural event. On a performance level, over a month of performances with a rotating lead cast, The Nutcracker is an important barometer of a company’s strengths and weaknesses.
A children’s show with technical challenges
Balanchine never lost sight of the fact that this is a children’s story, so reviewing The Nutcracker is more akin to covering a sporting event. The rows of kids in front of me were squirmy only toward the end, but through most of it they seemed interested.
Balanchine’s technical requirement for every level of dancer comes into play here. The Pennsylvania Ballet’s production more than covers its bases on this score, even though technically this pageant usually ranges all over the place and that was certainly true in the matinee performance I saw.
Act I offers a series of Fabergé cameos of Old World holiday pictures: parlor dances, socializing, games and the kids under the spell of the mysterious Herr Drosselmeier, who sets the fantasy in motion. Eleven-year-old Jacqueline Callahan and her young prince, Austin Thomas Butler, could very well be on their way to professional careers. They both danced the roles, when it’s more common that they are gesturally acted.
Snowflakes melting around the edges
The "Nutcracker Fantasy" is limply introduced with the mouse war, is always awkwardly staged. The ballet really begins with the snow scene at the end of Act I. Balanchine’s brilliant snowflakes provide a showcase for the female corps de ballet: What you look for here is crispness, the ethereal quality for those swirling ballerinas. What makes this section challenging is that the dancers, always moving in pretty unison, begin traversing in ever dizzying matrixes, so more can go wrong. For the matinee performance I saw (Dec. 10), the snowflakes were as pretty as ever, but their pacing was off and they started to melt around the edges.
Act II was ignited by Riolama Lorenzo’s Sugarplum Fairy, executing slowly paced pointe work in her angel’s solo, showing each step with unique pacing. It was intriguing to see this solo danced adagio, but focus got away from Lorenzo in the back half of the segment.
Amy Aldridge’s smoked in the Arabian dance “Coffee”: Her mysterious angles and sultry deportment almost made you miss her stellar technique. Aranxta Ochoa was a most regal dewdrop, with sharp pirouette runs and easy ballone in her series of stage exiting jetés. Gabriella Yudenich and Francis Veyette demonstrated great flair while leading the “Hot Chocolates” tarantella waltz. And Jermel Johnson, the company’s best jumper right now, threw huge lateral splits as “Tea.” The Sugarplum pas de deux contained thrilling moments: Lorenzo’s spins were centered and polished off, and James Ihde proved a most gallant cavalier. He didn‘t flinch when she galloped at him and leaped on his shoulders. (Balanchine had it in for the men, too.)
Second cast (December 28 performance)
Johnathan Stiles danced the soldier doll with much more precision and buoyancy than his earlier turn. Later in the run, those corps de ballet Snowflakes were still drifting a little, but they were definitely tighter. In this performance Riolama Lorenzo put her imprint on "Coffee" with voluptuous backbends, and Amy Aldridge’s dewdrop exuded sustained sparkle. Even with a minor flub in the Candy Canes hoop dance, Francis Veyette provided more than a satisfying sugar rush.
Principals Julie Diana and Zachary Hench danced their duet tentatively and eventually disastrously, with Diana dropping her fouettes and the pair colliding or tangling in key moments. What redeemed them in the audience’s eyes was their graceful fortitude through this most demanding pas de deux. Diana faired better in the introductory angel scene (in a completely different reading than Lorenzo's) with unfettered sustained pacing.
To read a response, click here.
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