I had the good fortune to watch ABT’s Nutcracker twice last Friday (their dress rehearsal run and the opening night performance). I saw the version for the first time last year, but for some reason (maybe it was the direct juxtaposition with NYCB the preceding weekend), I ended up loving it much more this year. I think Ratmansky’s version is my favorite Nutcracker to date.
The Nutcracker has become such a powerful holiday tradition of its own that I think some suspension of preconceived expectations for classical ballet Nutcracker is in order when watching Ratmansky’s version. At the same time, I think the beauty of his Nutcracker draws from the tired traditions of the Nutcracker – he takes the same childrens’ dances and adds petulance in their choreography. The children stomp exuberantly, wave their arms about, cry, but there are such vibrant portraits of character and so much going on in the party scene that even the party scene skeptic such as myself can’t help but feel amused at the antics on stage. His version of the first act is without a doubt the best party scene I’ve watched. It’s neither adults pretending to be children or children running around wildly. It’s an artistic retelling of childhood through dance and choreography, and that balance is what made the production shine to me.
The second act had similar sly moments of wit and humor. Ratmansky doesn’t shy away from adding caricature portrayals in each of the dances in the land of the sweets. At the same time, it is never at the expense of the dancing. His Waltz of the Flowers is probably the best example of this tendency. Ratmansky adds a quartet of bees in this sea of flowers, men wearing bee-heads, with their arms broken into a comical position fluttering their hands by their shoulders. It may ellicit laughter at the first glimpse of these bees and it’s certainly not the typical traditional classical ballet, but when they dance with the flowers the choreography is every bit as artistic as Balanchine’s swirling patterns in his own rendition. At the climax in the music, the four bees toss all sixteen flowers to each other in a startling display of strength.
Similarly, the pas de deux between the Nutcracker Prince and grown-up Clara is a beautiful piece of partnerwork. The lifts look contemporary and Clara throws herself to the Nutcracker with an abandon that is less traditional and proper than that exhibited by the Sugar Plum in NYCB. Marcelo Gomes and Veronika part danced the parts respectively and Marcelo was simply glorious to behold in his partnering and his exquisite technique. The male part had much more choreography to show off than that in NYCB and the partnering was so much more tangled and intricate. The male variation was also left intact (NYCB does not perform it) which I was supremely happy with.
Besides all of this, I think what makes Ratmansky’s version shine to me so much is his use of the music. I think the Nutcracker suite has some of the most beautiful orchestral music out there. I know that Tchaikovsky used to cause controversy in his ballet music at first because it was just so full that critics of the time claimed that it was too much and undanceable. While I do not find this true in the slightest, I believe his music is so beautiful that sometimes the choreography does not live up to it, or it appears that the choreographer does not try. I loved watching how Ratmansky used every piece of the music in his choreography – there was just so much going on onstage which is fitting since there is so much going on in the music. The flowers falling to the floor, the snowflakes turning into menacing ice and back into soft flurries, the gorgeous surprise pas de deux before the snowflakes fell. (One enduring point of grief for me about NYCB’s production was the waste of this gorgeous piece of music to be given to a remote-controlled, spinning bed and scene changes while Marie lies passed out on the bed during the entire length of the music.)
To be sure, I think NYCB had some wonderful production value that ABT did not replicate (the growing tree is definitely of the things) but overall, I’m determined to make ABT’s Nutcracker my annual holiday tradition here in NYC. Then again, I think about how magical NYCB’s grand pas is and I think maybe I should watch both again. The real point I’ve taken away from this is how incredibly lucky I am to be in a place where I can watch two different world-class productions of Nutcracker in the same week.
rinatutu 