One of the most well-known and loved ballets to this day. Set during Christmas time to tell us what "love to all" really means.
This is by no means the first time I've seen this ballet, in fact Its the one I know the best, some people may say its overrated others adore the well known classic. I'm a mix of both, I love the fantasy world we're put into, I also love the artistry and use of props in the movement. So in many ways I was really excited to watch it again my only worry was that I recognise the choreography and am so familiar with the story that it loses the magic.
As expected the cinema was completely full for the live-stream I think that just goes to show how popular the ballet is, every other live-stream/film I had to been to see on my season ticket the cinema/theatre was always half empty.
One of the main difference in this performance for me was the fact that the Nutcracker in its doll form was played by a young female instead of being an actual doll. im used to seeing Marie (or "Clara" as she is know traditionally in the German version of the story) dancing with a nutcracker doll. The dancer was incredibly good at playing this part, unlike traditional forms of ballet the dancers movements were stiff and angular to fit the characteristics of a wooden doll, which contrasts from the floaty elegant movements we assosciate with ballet! However, not only was the Nutcracker played by a female in the opening section but so were Marie's brother and all of the other male cousins, this could have been because of a shortage of male dancers within the company to distribute all the roles too, particularly in the Nutcracker you'll notice there are an equal/larger ratio of male characters to females, such as; the Mouse King, the Mice, The Toy Soldiers, Uncle Drosselmeyer and The Nutcracker himself.
The first part stayed quite traditionally to the story and scripting, however, the secound part wasn't as clear as it used to be for me, the stage was quite minimalistic in terms of scenery and props, with only a pile of snow with a tree/mountain backdrop at the very centre back of the stage, this can be effective at not taking any of the attention away from the dancers and the movements, however, personally I would have liked to have seen more of a set change for he land of sweets, where we get the dance of the sugar plum fairy and the different cultural dances, I feel that this would have enhanced the performance but also helped us to differentiate between the winter wonderland and the land of sweets as opposed to them being merged together, but that is a matter of opinion and taste. The Bolshoi ballet is a world renowned ballet company that is known for its outstanding technique and performance from its dancers so its understandable that they would not like to take the attention away from that!
What I will say is I did enjoy the dance of the snow fairy's which showed grate technique and poise with a large use of spatial patterns and design which added to the effect and enticement of the dance making it seem more complex and keeping everyone in the cinema transfixed, they did use the snowy mountain prop near the end of the routine with the addition of The Nutcracker and Marie it really gave the effect that they had gone into a new and exciting world which really "The Nutcracker" is supposed to do.
I also enjoyed the different cultural dances that had been mixed with ballet each one was suppoused to represent a different type of sweet. They represented India, China, Spain, Russia and either Danish or French. The movements represented many stereotypes of each country some more quirky than others! I felt all the duets showed skill and confidence in each and every movement, my favourite duet was defiantly the Indian styled dancing, I this may be because I've just finish studying kathak dancing in one of my recent dance units, so seeing them include and combine movements from ballet and kathak really intrigued me and could have given me inspiration for my own ballet-kathak fusion piece.
I had never noticed that the Nutcracker and Marie actually get married in this imaginary land, I know in spin-off film version they did but I had never been aware of it happening when I watched the ballet, so definitely watching it when im a little older does mean I pick up on a lot more of the detail and may suggested to me that I don't remember the story as well as I thought I had!
Overall I enjoyed the performance the dancing itself was brilliant and reasonably modern, however, I did feel some of the magic was gone for me maybe partly as I already new the story so it wasn't new material, but also because of maybe the lack of scenery in the second section. I didn't feel as enthused as I did when I saw their live-stream of Giselle earlier in the season. No matter how much I may critically comment on the piece it will still remain a gem of my childhood, and the really beauty of any performance that I will go to see now is that I will pick out some true highlights for me and other parts that I may feel less enthused by, but either way I still love watching a performance that has been really worked for and with the Bolshoi ballet you will know and can always see how hard each and every dancer has worked!
Emma Louise xx
