The Middle School Review of The Nutcracker
Maggie is a middle schooler with a passion for the performing arts. After her review of Les Mis, we invited her to review The Nutcracker Ballet. She has an acute attention to detail and some smart insights into the program. Keep an eye ot for more of her reviews in the future.
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Every year for the nine years I’ve called myself an Alaskan, The Nutcracker Ballet has been the official start to my holiday season. I’ve seen many different companies perform the classic fairytale, and each production is unique. However, some are better than others.
Basically, the story of the Nutcracker is set on Christmas Eve, where Maria’s family is hosting a grand party. Many guests arrive, including Maria’s godfather Drosselmeyer. He and his assistant entertain the children with wind-up toys and magic. Maria is given a wooden nutcracker as a gift from her godfather, but her younger brother becomes jealous and breaks the toy. It is fixed, and soon all the guests leave. Once asleep, Maria has a dream. Through a series of odd events involving Maria shrinking, a battle between the nutcracker’s soldiers and mice, and a snowflake dance, Maria’s nutcracker becomes a real prince. He takes her away to a magical land, where they are entertained by different dancers representing candies from around the world. Maria awakens on Christmas Day, never to share the dream with anyone.
This year the Eugene Ballet Company produced the ballet. In Act I, many local dancers were featured in the party scene. Unlike other productions I’ve seen, they added quite a bit of an intro that showed the guests traveling down the streets to Maria’s house, and an outro as they exited the party. This proved itself quite comical, and sweet, but a bit long in my opinion. This shortened the actual party scene by quite a bit, which oddly didn’t seem rushed at all. In fact, it was as grand and joyful as ever.
However, in Act II, many solo dancers are featured as different sweets. My favorite was the Trepak (also known as the Russian Trio) who performed various acrobatic tricks in addition to their dancing. They earned the most applause after their performance, and once again at the bows. Also, the Chinese dancer was very impressive with her leaping and ribbon-twirling combo. Other especially entertaining groups were the Arabians, the Sugar Plum Fairy, and the Marzipan Trio. Overall, it was one of the best Act IIs I can say I’ve ever seen.
Another huge part of the Nutcracker ballet is the costumes. Every year each company has their own interpretation of what a candy’s attire should be. I was particularly impressed with the diversity of the dancers’ apparel this year. My favorite costumes were the women snowflake dancers. Instead of just wearing the normal ballerina getup, they sported longer skirts and fitted jackets. They still appeared to be snowflakes, but were very set apart from the other acts.
My favorite scene this year was the battle scene between the Mouse King and the Nutcracker. The sequence started with a few mice following Maria in her dance. At that point, they incorporated strobe lights that cast their shadows onto the backdrop. It was choreographed in such a way that their shadows were not strewn together in a grey mess but as a distinct and more dramatic copy of what the dancers portrayed. The scene change that followed was quite simple but great as well. All they did was discreetly turn around each set piece. The opposite side of the set was almost identical, but with a different color scheme that matched the mice.
Lastly, the orchestra was phenomenal, as always. The music fit perfectly with the dancing. Of course many people have heard the soundtrack on the radio many times, but it is always better to hear it live with the dancing.
I love seeing the Nutcracker every year. The Nutcracker is a ballet, but I would recommend it for anyone who enjoys storytelling at its finest. Thanks to everyone involved with the Eugene Ballet Company for bringing this classic to life, I hope to see you return.
