'Nutcracker' season

Matthew Bourne's Nutcracker

Matthew Bourne's "Nutcracker!"
December 6, 2004
Orange County Performing Arts Center, Costa Mesa

Long Beach Ballet's "The Nutcracker"
December 19, 2004
Terrace Theatre, Long Beach

It's Christmas time in the United States again, and that of course means that everything dance related becomes "Nutcracker". There are virtually no major dance performances in this area around Christmas time that are not "Nutcracker" - much less in the entire United States. Thankfully, Southern California is not subjected to American Ballet Theatre's rather flawed production this year, shifting the focus to community and alternative Nutcrackers.

Matthew Bourne's "Nutcracker!" (note the exclamation point) is a decidedly alternative Nutcracker. Bourne is a theatre/modern dance choreographer who has made a name for himself re-inventing classic ballets as elaborate, Broadwayish productions. He made a splash in LA with - very good - productions of "Swan Lake" (which turned all the swans into bare-chested male creatures, and shifted the story into one parodying British royalty) and "Cinderella" (which used Sergei Prokofiev's already dark score to shift the story into the 1940s London Blitz - a very effective switch in my view). Both played at the Ahmanson in downtown and both made a pretty big name for Bourne in the dance world.

Thus, it was with some excitement that his "Nutcracker!" comes to the United States, on a mini-tour of venues in Southern California. This production was originally created in 1992, for the UK's Opera North, three years before "Swan Lake" made his name. It was revised in 2001 and presented for two Christmas seasons at Sadler's Wells in London, before going on tour this year.

Bourne's "Nut!" is certainly irreverent, in the same way that "Swan Lake" and "Cinderella" were, but it is also less coherent dramatically and less interesting generally. "Nutcracker!" is clearly an earlier work than the later three pieces we have seen in Los Angeles (with "The Car Man" being the third of the aforementioned two ballets). Bourne's knack for storytelling is present here as it is in all of his pieces, but the choreography doesn't all add up to the sum of its parts.

Act 1 in particular is very clever, with some pretty funny choreography that tells the story quite clearly. The March is quite amusing and very well choreographed, and the antics of the orphans throughout are hilarious. But the story is basically dead by the beginning of Act II, and Act II is decidedly tedious. The divertissement dances are very over the top, made even more strange without a strong connecting through-line. The storytelling inventiveness we saw in Act I evaporated in Act II; the only thing holding the show together were the truly dedicated performers and the sheer colorfulness of the sets and costumes.

The production would likely flow better if performed without an intermission (and according to Alastair Macaulay's book on Matthew Bourne, it was originally created without an intermission). If the production were to flow straight through, no momentum would be lost during intermission; the ending to Act I doesn't have much oomph, and the remaining story doesn't have enough weight to carry as its own act.

I suppose it's worth a view, though, for those of you looking for an alternative "Nutcracker". The show plays at UCLA's Royce Hall through January 2nd.

The Long Beach Ballet's "Nutcracker," on the other hand, is more traditional in nature. Community ballet companies across the country - usually, semi-professional fronts for large ballet schools - stage at least one or two performances of the Nutcracker annually, and the Long Beach Ballet is no different. Along with the myriad other schools around Southern California (Westside Ballet, Inland Pacific Ballet, Ballet Pacifica in particular come to mind), this is a sweet production filled with children from the school and decent dancing at best.

What sets Long Beach Ballet's production apart this year is the special guest appearance of Patricia Barker, a principal dancer with Seattle's Pacific Northwest Ballet, as the Sugar Plum Fairy. Barker, simply put, is a radiant dancer - accomplished technique and a glittering, royal stage presence. I saw her dance Titania in George Balanchine's version of "A Midsummer Night's Dream" two summers ago at the Hollywood Bowl. Even from my seats far, far away in that monstrous outdoor amphitheatre, she managed to make a stunning impact. So her even brief appearance with this admittedly amateur production was reason enough to make a visit.

Long Beach Ballet has a very good community "Nutcracker" - the sets and costumes are quite elaborate, and there are even special effects like pyrotechnics, flying sleighs, and a real horse on stage. It is very sweet to watch young children dancing around on stage. The young children in the party scene are presumably intermediate to advanced level ballet students, and the girls in particular are quite well trained. (It's nice to see some real choreography in the Act 1 party scene after two years of ABT's rather lame excuse for cute party-happenings in their production.) The angels that open Act 2 are even younger children - little tykes who look positively confused being on stage, crashing into each other, racing around trying to remember the choreography taught to them. Watching them simply makes you smile: they're so cute that who cares if they're not executing profession choreography.

The amateurishness starts to grate on major balletomanes like myself, however, when major ballet dancing is required. The Snow Scene and the Walt of the Flowers were decent enough, I guess, but quite boring to watch; there was bad choreography and competent but bland dancing (perhaps it would have been more interesting with better choreography?). Basically, the show started to drag when there weren't any children dancing anymore.

Patricia Barker made the event good enough for me, dancing in the Grand Pas de Deux at the end of the show - it would have been better, I guess, had I known someone on stage like most members of the audience did. She sparkled as expected, though maybe not as much as she did in "Midsummer Night's Dream". Then again, there was that awful choreography again - its not entirely clear who choreographed the Grand Pas de Deux, but it was overly fussy, and not very Grand in the usual sense. She did seem a bit restrained, and it was a let down when she didn't do fouettes in the coda of the pas de deux.

So, two decent "Nutcrackers" this holiday season. Every year, I keep thinking, 'You know, the Nutcracker really isn't a very good ballet overall.' And yet, I go to a production every year, mostly because I'm so dance-starved by the holidays and there's absolutely nothing else to go see. Let's see what happens next holiday season, and hope for the best!