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It's a population boom! The Nevada Ballet Theater is growing in size and prestige - and like any growing population, it contains a lot of children. Like a glass of B eaujolais Nouveau, this dance company isn't old and complex, but instead young and fresh. It is aging nicely, however, as this year's performance at the Rio Hotel and Casino's Samba Theater showed.
"The Nutcracker" ballet premiered in Moscow in 1892 and was based on a delightful Christmas tale by E.T.A. Hoffman. Peter Tchaikovsky was commissioned to create the musical score, and boy, did he score! The composer reportedly considered his ballet suite rather pedestrian, throw-away pop fluff, but the audiences loved it. (For more information on this strange, troubled genius visit: www.tchaikovsky.host.sk/index.htm.) Do you suppose future generations will consider music by the Backstreet Boys to be priceless classics?
Okay, on to happier thoughts. The story takes place in a nineteenth-century European country mansion. The well-heeled guests and their many children arrive for a lavish party of dancing and gifts. The hosts' daughter Clara receives a wooden nutcracker doll in the form of a toy soldier from her godfather Drosselmeyer. Clara's jealous brother Fritz takes the doll from her and carelessly breaks it, the little rat. Drosselmeyer fixes it and also presents two life-sized dancing dolls to entertain the crowd.
After the party, Clara has a fantastic dream in which the doll comes to life as a prince and defeats an army of little rats led by the Mouse King (who fortunately bears no resemblance to Fritz. Evidently Clara is the forgiving type.) The prince then takes Clara and Fritz on a magical journey through the Land of Snow and the Land of Sweets to meet the Sugarplum Fairy. Why can't I have such dreams? (A fuller description of the story, with music samples, is available at www.nutcrackerballet.net.)
Remember being a kid? Everything seemed so much bigger, especially in dreams (such as the monster under the bed, who doesn't seem so big now). Clara's dream really begins when the Christmas tree suddenly grows to a tremendous height. This is the true magic of this enduring holiday classic: it draws us into the child's mind and reminds us how to make believe.
The Nevada Ballet Theater has many dancers, from middle-aged adults to children no older than five. Two eleven-year-olds, Monica Moazez and Rebecca Swain, alternate in the role of Clara and are more realistic than the anorexic Russian woman I saw in the classic televised Baryshnikov performance. Clara's brother Fritz is played alternately by Aaron Sampson, 8, and Cameron Findley, 11. All are students at the Academy of Nevada Ballet Theater. These principals are a treat to watch, but really all the children are. Their dancing isn't acrobatic or polished, but their spunky movements and lively facial expressions make the experience as fun as watching your own kids' Christmas play. (If you just thought, "That's not fun!" - shame on you, Ebenezer.)
There was some adult supervision in the cast, too. The dancing dolls were great fun, managing the mechanical movements that a wind-up doll would make while performing jumps and spins. The soldier performed an athletic battle scene with the Mouse King. The Sugarplum Fairy was terrific, performing solo and with the prince who accompanies the kids through la-la land. He had some marvelous moves but appeared exhausted by the end. It was like watching the Olympics, hoping he wouldn't drop his partner or slip and fall. I was reminded of the Shanghai Ballet, whose lightly built male principals lacked Herculean strength but still looked remarkably graceful in their lifts during their visit to Las Vegas in November.
Tchaikovsky epitomized the Romantic period of music, which emphasized exotic influences and emotional expression. The most fun part of the story - and of the music - is the dancing performances in Clara's dream. The Spanish Dance trio whirled in their flamboyant costumes. Tonight's Arabian Dance was slow and sensual and featured an impossibly flexible female  dancer who made yoga look like child's play. The Chinese Dance pair hopped and twirled playfully to very lively music. The Dance of the Mirlitons featured three graceful ladies doing some fairly traditional ballet moves. The acrobatic Cossack Dancer threw himself all over the stage, doing one-footed twirling jumps, landing in a split without wincing (I did the wincing for him), and making it look easy. The Old Woman Who Lived in a Shoe had an army of small children emerge from the folds of her enormous skirts to perform a very playful and charming dance as she blew kisses to the audience. Finally, the scene in the Land of Snow featured a corps of young female ballerinas and three principals who enchanted us (well, me, at least) with their graceful dancing and warm smiles as they performed the lovely Waltz of the Flowers.
The costumes, sets, and choreography for this performance were lavish and reflected quite well on NBT's artistic director, Bruce Steivel, and theatrical designer Alexandre Vassiliev. My date had seen the same performance two years before and said that this year's was greatly improved. The $250,000 grant from the E.L. Wiegand Foundation and sponsorship by International Gaming Technology helped make all this possible.
The biggest improvement, however, was the music. Whereas in previous years the performance used a recorded score, this year the ballet featured a sizable portion of the Las Vegas Philharmonic, led by the Phil's conductor Harold L. Weller, filling the Samba Theater with Tchaikovsky's rich, festive sounds from their hideout in the orchestra pit. I say "hideout" because the pit was hidden from the audience's view by a parapet in front of the stage and set on a platform that raised them into position from deep below the hall's floor. It was an odd setup, and I would like to have been able to see more than the top of Maestro Weller's head. I should explain my viewpoint here: rather than considering the music an accompaniment to the dancing, I consider the dancing - terrific as it and the story are - something to watch while I enjoy the music. Tchaikovsky may not have liked it much, but what did he know? Sometimes it's good to be a pedestrian.
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Reviewed December 19, 2002, by Robert LaGrone, Las Vegas Jetsetters Magazine Entertainment Editor.
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