Christmas Traditions: The Moscow Ballet's Nutcracker

Principal dancers, Mykhailo Shcherbakov and Olga Pasternak of The Moscow Ballet.

Perhaps nothing harkens back to a traditional Christmas like The Nutcracker Ballet.  First performed in 1892 in St. Petersburg, it like Swan Lake and Sleeping Beauty are Russian ballet to its core. Undergirded with music by the renowned composer, Pyotr Ilyich Tchaikovsky, The Nutcracker celebrates its 75th anniversary since it was first performed here in the US in December of 1944.

The Moscow Ballet is now on its 27th North American Tour, making 144 stops along the way. Each stop requires a meticulous set up of special stage matting as well as lighting, scenery, costumes, and effects. Rehearsals are done on stage prior to the first performance to allow a thorough warm-up.

Warming up with rehearsal time before The Nutcracker performance.

The Moscow Ballet's Nutcracker production offers much more than the original, classical ballet. Included are extremely powerful, yet controlled grande jetes and tour en l' air by the male danseurs, yet innovative moves showing extreme flexibility as shown in the Arabian Variation in Act II.  
Some of my personal favorites included the high-speed pirouettes by The Nutcracker Prince and the tender pas de deux between him and Masha. Other highlights included the corps de ballet for the Waltz of the Flowers and the Sugar Plum Fairy's dance. The whole production is absolutely breathtaking and ethereal!

Russian Ballet Theatre's Production of Swan Lake

The Russian Ballet Theatre is on tour with their newly choreographed version of Swan Lake. The next performance in the NYC area will be at the Kings Theater in Brooklyn on November 17th, 2019.

I had the opportunity to catch the Russian Ballet Theatre's production of Swan Lake this past weekend at the lovely Nash Theater in Branchburg, NJ.  Everything about the performance offered a feast for the senses. The classical music, by Pyotr Tchaikovsky, is rich and engaging providing the perfect canvas for this lush production. Likewise, the set design and lighting took you convincingly from a boggy, moonlit lake to a bright and sumptuous palace ballroom.

The Hungarian Princesses dancing in the palace ballroom

This newly arranged ballet has humor, romance (of course), suspense and most of all exquisite choreography. Standout performances of the evening came from Vasli Bogdan (Von Rothbart) and the prima ballerina, Olga Kifyak.  Other high points included the "folk" style Hungarian, Russian and Spanish dances in the palace.  The impish court jester (danced by Mikhail Ovcharov) was an incredibly powerful dancer and stole many a scene with his pranks and antics!

Seating at The Nash Theater

With hand-painted sets and over 150 beautifully hand-sewn costumes, this was a first-rate production in every respect. Really on par with ballet productions I've seen at Lincoln Center in NYC. The theatrical makeup was done by none other than Irina Strukova, who has also worked on the sets of Crazy Rich Asians, Netflix, and HBO.  I already have my ticket to return to this theater to see The Nutcracker in December!  That production is by The Moscow Ballet.

Prince Siegfried and Odette

The Queen

Visit the troop online at RussianBalletTheatre.com  for upcoming tour dates and tickets.