[NEohioPAL] Berko review: THE NUTCRACKER (Ballet San Jose)

[Roy Berko]

‘NUTCRACKER’ returns as Ballet San Jose comes home

Roy Berko

(Member, Dance Critics Associatiion)

--THE TIMES NEWSPAPERS--

Lorain County Times--Westlaker Times--Lakewood News
Times--Olmsted-Fairview Times	

On December 12, 1979, The Cleveland Ballet premiered
its version of ‘THE NUTCRACKER.’  Twenty-three hundred
people attended the production at Cleveland Public
Music Hall.  Much has happened to the ballet scene on
the north coast since that momentous day.  

In 1986 a group of California Silicon Valley
benefactors offered a partnership to the Cleveland
Ballet.  Productions would be staged both in San Jose
and Cleveland.    With this new arrangement the local
ballet company, which was co-founded by Ernie Horvath
and Dennis Nahat, was able to offer the dancers added
performing exposure and would provide each community a
great company for a moderate, shared investment.

Much to the chagrin of Clevelanders, Nahat, much like
Art Model, the owner of the Cleveland Browns, took
“our” creation and left town.  Thus, in 2000 Ballet
San Jose Silicon Valley was born.  The reasons for the
“failure” of the local company are numerous, and lots
of finger-pointing followed.  Over-spending and lack
of constraint by Nahat, the exodus of large
corporations from the Cleveland area which eliminated
funders, and poor management by the ballet’s board,
have all been blamed.  

Whatever the past, a sold out house was present for
the opening night of ‘THE NUTCRACKER’ at the State
Theatre.  In contrast to the negative greetings given
even the mention of Model’s name, the audience gave
loud applause to Nahat’s initial appearance as
Godfather Drosselmeyer (a part which he trades off
with local favorite Raymond Rodriguez).

‘THE NUTCRACKER’ is a fairy tale-ballet in two acts
with music by Peter Ilyich Tchaikovsky.  It is based
on “The Nutcracker and the King of Mice,” a story by
E. T. A. Hoffmann.  It was first presented in 1891. 

The story concerns a young girl who dreams of a
Nutcracker Prince, a fierce battle against a Mouse
King and the romantic adventure in which she is taken
on a journey by a handsome prince.  In their travels
they experience a snowstorm, and journeys to Muscovy,
The Land of the Shifting Sands, and the Land of the
Ivory Pagoda.

Production highlights include the Dance of the
Snowflakes and The Dance of 
The Sugar Plum Fairy (actually a performance by the
Trsarina and Tsar).  

Since the story is set around the holidays, 
productions usually are staged during the Christmas
season. 

Except for the overly long opening scene, which
contains a lot of walking and little dancing, the
choreography is excellent.   Nahat uses that
exposition scene to add some of his signature attempts
at humor.

Because the production has seven alternating principal
casts, who you see in the lead roles of Maria, the
Nutcracker/Prince Alexis and the Tsarina Tatianna and
Tsar Nikolai is a matter of chance.

Fortunately, on opening night Karen Gabay, a long time
local favorite and artistic director of Point of
Departure, which is in local residence during the
summers, danced the Tsarina.  As always, she was
radiant and commanded the stage.   Maykel Solas (Tsar)
partnered Gabay well.

Maria Jacobs was our Maria.  She is petite, lovely and
moved with ease.  Her point work was excellent and she
floated in her leaps.  Her Prince was danced by Ramon
Moreno whose small stature was a perfect match for
Jacobs.  His circle turns and partnering were well
done and elicited much applause.

The sets were beautiful as were the costumes, though I
prefer the snowflakes in tutus rather than long
skirts,

Capsule judgment:  Ballet San Jose’s ‘THE NUTCRACKER’
is one of the better stagings of the ballet.  It is
nice to see classical ballet in a local venue.  It can
only be hoped that Gabay and Rodriquez will be able to
develop their POINTE OF DEPARTURE into an all year
company and allow us to get the bad taste of the
departure of The Cleveland Ballet out of our psyche.

‘THE NUTCRACKER’ runs through December 2 at the State
Theatre in Playhouse Square.  For tickets call
216-241-6000, 800-766-6048 or go on line to
www.playhousesquare.com.



Roy Berko's blog, which contains theatre and dance reviews from 2001 through 2007, as well as his consulting and publications information, can be found at http://royberko.info
      
Roy's theatre and dance reviews appear regularly on NeOHIOpal, an on-line source.   To subscribe to this free service via the World Wide Web, visit http://mailman.listserve.com/listmanager/listinfo/neohiopal.  His reviews also appear on www.coolcleveland.com


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