The Nutcracker

ACT I

Young Marie and her brother Fritz are excited as preparations are being made for a christmas party at their family home. The clock strikes nine and the children of the house dance into the room, together with their friends. Uncle Drosselmeyer arrives and entertains the children with his lifelike mechanical dolls. The time arrives for the children to retire to bed. They beg to stay up a little longer, and Drosselmeyer produces one more gift for Marie - a Nutcracker doll. Fritz is jealous and tries to take the nutcracker from Marie, breaking it. Drosselmeyer scolds Fritz and repairs the doll for Marie. The children go off to bed and the guests leave - the evening is over. Marie returns to the darkened room, looking for Nutcracker which she left behind. She curls up on a chair with it and falls asleep. She dreams that the mouse king and his mouse army overrun the house. But then the Nutcracker comes to life and leads his own army in an attack on the mice. It is a close run thing, but the soldiers win when Marie distracts the mouse king. Beautiful fairy maidens dance in celebration of the victory.

ACT II

Marie dreams of the Realm of Sweets, where the Nutcracker is transformed into a handsome Prince and dances with the beautiful Sugar-plum Fairy honour of Marie. A grand carnival is held, and all the denizens of Wonderland dance in celebration.

Impressions/Performances

The Nutcracker is arguably the most popular and certainly one of the most frequently performed of all classical ballets. With it's christmas theme, it is especially suitable for children, and has enchanted audiences of all ages for generations. Here it was delightfully performed by the talented young artists of the State Ballet Academy of Minsk. Minsk is the capital city of the former Soviet province of Belarus, now an independent republic. Minsk has long been acclaimed for it's excellence in folk and classical dance forms and the Minsk Academy, which is founded in 1928, ranks amongst the best ballet schools in the world - many of it's young artists having won prizes in international ballet competitions across Europe.

The ballet is brought to stunning life by over forty young artists, with an age range, judging by appearances, from around ten years to twenty. Their version of the ballet follows along fairly traditional lines, but with some unique changes in the detail. It is also a somewhat basic rendering of the tale, with a recorder sound-track in place of an orchestra and sets and props being virtually non-existent - consisting only of a couple of extremely bland painted back-drops. Also, at a running time of only ninety minutes (not counting the interval), it is a somewhat abbreviated version of the story. Props do not stretch to any kind of vessel to transport the Nutcracker to the Realm of Sweets at the end of the end of the first act, and the awakening of Marie at the end of the second is omitted altogether. But the skill and ability of the young dancers, of every age group are quite literally breathtaking. Especially striking were one little trio of two girls and one boy who performed a pas de trois in place of the usual solo for the sugar-plum fairy. Usually, pointe-work for girls is not recommended to begin until at least the age of twelve, so the technical ability and assurance of the pointe work these little mites who looked ten at a pinch, but gave every impression of years of practice, was genuinely astounding (if perhaps a little worrying for their welfare - there is a reason for the age limit!).

What little budget was available has clearly been spent on the costumes, which certainly do not share the same threadbare appearance of the back-drops - which only serves to make the latter seem even more a case of spoiling the ship for a ha'pporth of tar! All in all then, as a rendition of the ballet, as if it were performed by an adult company, this production would have left more than a little to be desired. But as a showcase of the talents of the young (in some cases very young) stars of tomorrow, it was a quite stunning show promising great things to come.

Verdict

An incredible showcase of the budding talents of some of the great dancers of tomorrow.

Don Gillan - www.stagebeauty.net