I had an absolutely magical experience attending Ballet West’s 2023 production of The Nutcracker, so I eagerly anticipated attending again this year. My friend Mony and I coordinated our plans so that we were able to attend Saturday afternoon’s matinée performance together. Still magical, this year’s production also embodies intensity, energy, and expressiveness — from the orchestra in the pit to each soloist, corps dancer, and child on stage. The entire production fills Capitol Theatre with vibrant sound, movement, and color.
Ballet West’s 2024 production continues the tradition of using Willam Christensen’s 1944 choreography as well as sets, costumes, and special effects that the company updated in 2017. The familiar tale remains intact. Dr. Drosselmeyer (Robert Fowler) picks up a gift from a shop on Christmas Eve and then travels to the home of his goddaughter Clara’s parents — Herr Stahlbaum (Loren Walton) and Frau Stahlbaum (Lilian Casscells) — where guests are arriving for a holiday party. The guests enter the Stahlbaum’s living room to celebrate, and Drosselmeyer enthralls the children with an array of toys: dolls, trumpets, a life-sized doll (Isabella Corridon) and a life-sized bear (Victor Galeana). He soon reveals the special gift he brought to be a Nutcracker shaped like a soldier which he presents to Clara (Peri Lewis). She falls in love with it, and once the party guests have left, Clara returns to the living room to look at and play with her Nutcracker one more time before going to sleep. As Clara drifts between wakefulness and dreams, the Christmas tree increases in size, and she sees giant mice at play. The Nutcracker fights the Mouse King (Jake Preece), wins, and becomes a handsome prince (Vinicius Lima). Indebted to Clara for helping him in his battle with the mice, the Nutcracker Prince transports her through the land of the Snow King (Joseph Lynch) and Queen (Emily Adams) on the way to the Kingdom of the Sugar Plum Fairy (Lexi McCloud). The Sugar Plum Fairy and her Cavalier (David Huffmire) entertain Clara and her Nutcracker Prince with a series of performances: Spanish dancers, Arabian dancers, Chinese warriors, Mirlitons, Russian dancers, Mother Buffoon with children who appear from under her skirt, and waltzing flowers. The Sugar Plum Fairy and her Cavalier dance a pas de deux followed by their own solos. Each group of dancers returns to dance a finale piece before Clara and her Nutcracker Prince leave in a delicate sleigh.
Each element of Saturday afternoon’s performance was delightful, giving me the opportunity to enjoy beloved parts of the production again and notice nuances that were exceptional this year. Ballet West’s orchestra sounded incredible performing Tchaikovsky’s lush score, creating a robust, resonant sound that enveloped the entire theater. I sat in the mezzanine this time, and I was amazed at the power of the music from that auditory perspective. Magnificent music has been a consistent feature of Ballet West’s productions this season in which the sound has been as captivating as the dancing on stage. During The Nutcracker, this was particularly true of the moment when the Christmas tree grows and when the Sugar Plum Fairy and her Cavalier dance their pas de deux. At these times, the orchestra played with great passion and intensity, allowing the swell in the music to match the activity on stage. Several plot developments and vignettes will always be my favorite — the melodramatic Mouse King, the Russian dancers, and the children who emerge from Mother Buffoon’s skirt dressed as bumblebees — and this year’s dancers in these roles lived up to expectations. Victor Galeana, reprising his role as the life-sized, windup bear, delivered a particularly animated performance that I really enjoyed. I appreciated seeing some new faces in leading roles this year: Loren Walton as Herr Stahlbaum, Vinicius Lima as the Nutcracker Prince, Lexi McCloud as the Sugar Plum Fairy, and David Huffmire as her Cavalier. Walton and Lima delivered stately and expressive performances of their characters. McCloud excelled at beautiful form in the grand pas de deux, particularly its dramatic lifts and poses, and Huffmire brought his characteristic energy to the Cavalier’s solos following the pas de deux. (He is a Ballet West dancer whom I especially enjoy watching.) The corps dancers who portrayed snowflakes at the end of Act I and waltzing flowers in Act II brought extraordinary vitality and extension to their choreography, creating incredible synergy with the orchestra. Victoria Vassos as the lead flower beautifully exemplified this as she moved perfectly in sync with the harp at the beginning of the Waltz of the Flowers vignette.
I am happy to have made Ballet West’s The Nutcracker part of my holiday celebration again this year. There is still plenty of time to incorporate it into your plans as it runs through December 28, 2024. I whole-heartedly recommend seeing it! Click here for information and tickets.
Bonus Feature: Pictures at an Exhibition
In mid-November, I had the opportunity to see Ballet West’s repertory program titled Pictures at an Exhibition. This production included three shorter works intended to take the audience through a “gallery” of some of the best current examples of abstract and expressionistic dance. Similar to Ballet West’s production of Jekyll and Hyde earlier this season, Pictures at an Exhibition embodied a beautiful fusion of music and movement.
- Serenade by George Balanchine, set to Tchaikovsky’s Serenade for Strings – Balanchine choreographed this work on the dancers of his newly created School of American Ballet in 1934. He did not have a consistent number of dancers attending each rehearsal, so he worked with what he had, and some rehearsal mishaps made their way into the finished piece. The work incorporates a corps of female dancers demonstrating classical positions and moving in and out of geometric formations, often appearing to be set on a diagonal. (This is a result of Balanchine’s having an odd number of dancers to work with during some rehearsals.) The piece also includes smaller ensembles such as a quartet and several pas de deux. I loved the cool blue tones of the lighting and costumes, evoking moonlight; the geometry and symmetry of the dancers’ formations; and Ballet West’s artists’ full extension and expansion in executing the choreography.
- Within the Golden Hour by Christopher Wheeldon, set to music by Ezio Bosso (inspired by Antonio Vivaldi) – This work premiered in San Francisco in 2008. The work is built around three principal couples and an ensemble of four women and four men. In contrast to Serenade’s moonlight blue color palette, Ballet West costumed dancers for this work in earth and jewel tones. The piece includes two pas de deux that I absolutely loved! The first, featuring Lillian Casscells and Jake Preece in gold-green costumes against a golden background, is set to music that evokes Irish or Scottish folk music. It has a sustained undertone and moving melody. The choreography is deliberately paced to match the flow of the music, moving into innovative poses and lifts. Cascells and Preece beautifully elongated each movement and created a spellbinding performance. You could have heard a pin drop in the theater. The second pas de deux featured Katlyn Addison and Adrian Fry in turquoise costumes. Their performance was equally spellbinding as they moved through graceful positions.
- Pictures at an Exhibition by Alexei Ratmansky, set to Modest Mussorgsky’s piano suite of the same name – Ratmansky choreographed this piece for New York City Ballet in 2014. Mussorgsky’s piano suite is a ten-movement piece written to honor artist and friend Victor Hartmann who passed away suddenly. Each movement is named after a different Hartmann painting, and Ratmansky drew inspiration for his work from these titles, the last of which, “The Heroes Gate of Kiev,” has become more relevant in recent years. Ratmansky also incorporated Wassily Kandinsky’s 1913 painting Color Study: Colors with Concentric Circles as a backdrop and inspiration for the dancers’ costumes. I found this piece to be equally whimsical and bold with the dancers’ movements following the development of the music and depicting the shapes in the art. Two highlights for me were a female soloist whose energy perfectly matched the music and a vibrant duet that exuded passion.
The Good Life 