The Nutcracker (@GohBallet) at The Centre in Vancouver for The Performing Arts (review)
Sharing artistic performances with people I love and care about ranks high up there on my list of things I enjoy. And last night’s show (The Goh Ballet‘s The Nutcracker at The Centre in Vancouver for The Performing Arts) was a very fine example. JT got us tickets and he really wanted my readers to share the holiday spirit of this exceptional production. So below you will find my review of The Nutcracker, superbly produced by Chan Hon Goh and supremely choreographed by Anna-Marie Holmes. The set design by Zhang Dinghao & Li Ming, is absolutely astonishing and so incredibly appealing it’s mesmerizing. Music by the Vancouver Opera Orchestra is absolutely delightful (and who does not love Tchaikovsky).
This year’s production will feature two Principal couples, one from the Pacific Northwest Ballet and one from the National Ballet of Canada as well as live accompaniment from the Vancouver Opera Orchestra. Running in Vancouver from December 16th – 19th 2010 at the Centre in Vancouver for Performing Arts, tickets are on sale through Ticketmaster. The Goh Ballet Nutcracker will also tour to Victoria this year for four shows at the Royal Theatre from November 26th – 28th 2010.
On to the review. First off, a small suggestion to The Centre in Vancouver for The Performing Arts: It would probably help to get a few more ushers on busy nights (and bonus the ones you already have, they’re awesome). Getting into an almost-sold-out performance of a ballet classic like The Nutcracker with a mixed audience that included lots of very young men and women was a bit challenging. The poor ushers (I only caught eye of two) were absolutely overwhelmed. But they never got grumpy with anyone and for that, they should be praised.
The Nutcracker is a magical tale that begins on Christmas Eve at the house of Herr and Frau Silberhaus and their children (one of them being the main character, Clara who enters a magical world following a nutcracker. I have seen outstanding ballet performances before, and one of them was actually last year’s Moulin Rouge, performed by the Royal Winnipeg Ballet. That show made me cry all the way through. The Goh Ballet’s Nutcracker was different from Moulin Rouge, though. Very pretty in the first act, but absolutely blew me away in the second act.
The first act, setting the stage for the development of the actual magical tale, which begins when Clara falls asleep with her nutcracker and is attacked by larger-than-life-sized mice (totally adorable) and her nutcracker becomes a handsome soldier who rescues her. Off they go into the beautiful Land of Sweets in Confiturembourg. Some of the dances in the first act showed a bit of asynchronous movements a couple of times when I expected the ensemble to dance synchronously (this may just have been the way the choreography was designed, and to be quite fair, I now realize that there was a mix of technical levels on the stage, from relative beginners to professional ballet dancers, so take my comment with a grain of salt). The mice attacking Clara are so delightfully fun they made the first act in and of itself, I think. Obviously, I would be remiss if I didn’t highlight the extraordinary skill and mastery of the magician.
This production has two main couples, Piotr Stanczyk, Mara Vinson, Sonia Rodriguez and Karel Cruz, all of them showcasing why they are la creme de la creme when it comes to national ballet. The prima ballerinas’ arabesques and pirouettes were extraordinary, and I grew fond specially of their arabesque penseés. Athleticism, aesthetics and originality are three words that come to mind when describing this version of The Nutcracker. I was absolutely stunned and raved about Mere Gagnon and her adorable bonbons, an ensemble of eight young girls and boys who performed cartwheels and backflips that I wish I had been able to do in my best years of dancing. Plus their movements were so absolutely well coordinated it was impossible to find fault in them. I wanted to shout “you go, kids!”.
The Snow King and Queen are stunning both in their athleticism, their own physical prowess and beauty and the chemistry they project while dancing together the pas de deux. The second act was (to my eyes and soul) exhilarating and dynamic. The Valse Des Fleurs was really cute. The dance between the Sugar Plum Fairy and her Cavalier towards the end of the second act was simply superb. It’s also quite likely that most people will recognize the music of the second act of The Nutcracker much more than the first act.
The Goh Ballet’s intermingling of young, relative newcomers with experienced dancers is a strategy I have seen before, at Theatre Under the Stars’ Joseph and the Amazing Technicolor Dream Coat, where the up-and-coming performers learn on stage from the fantastic work deployed by their more experienced counterparts. While some may see this as a risky move on the part of Goh and , I see it as having faith in the ability of young dancers to assimilate their older counterparts’ performances by being immersed in them. And I *love* this idea.
Overall, my verdict on Twitter of The Nutcracker still stands:
The Nutcracker was mesmerizing, spectacular, strong and showy. I’m utterly impressed. THIS is ballet!
The Goh Ballet’s The Nutcracker is a Christmas tradition that must not be missed. You should run and see it, tickets for tonight and tomorrow night are available via TicketMaster.
Disclosure: JT paid for our tickets on his own dime. I am not obligated to write this review nor am I paid to write it either, but I felt I owed it to him to write about The Nutcracker since the reason why he bought the tickets was precisely so that, should I choose to blog about it, my readers could take advantage of the next two performances: December 18th and 19th. And you should!
