The Pacific Northwest Ballet's iconic "Nutcracker" celebrates its 25th anniversary this holiday season.
McCaw Hall filled this weekend with spinning, hopping and absolutely adorably dressed children. And that was just the audience streaming through the lobby past the enormous Christmas tree decorated with white peacocks.
A glance through the program revealed a "Nutcracker" packed with history from its first twirl on stage. Check the black-and-white photo of the creators, choreographer Kent Stowell and designer Maurice Sendak, taking their bows with that first cast.
The former, along with wife Francia Russell, turned a provincial ballet company into a nationally recognized program, largely through audacious gambles like spending a then unheard of $600,000 to create the new "Nutcracker" and later shifting the PNB's signature school out of the drafty Good Shepherd Center to the highly visible current location at the Seattle Center.
That same photo reveals a two future powerhouses of Northwest ballet in the minor roles of the Commedia characters that opening night: ballerina Patricia Barker, who would later inspire legions of little girls during her two-decade reign as the diamond queen of PNB's stage, and Christopher Stowell, the current artistic director of the revived Oregon Ballet Theatre. Stowell and Russell's son still lives December in thrall to Tchaikovsky. He is presenting Balanchine's version of the "Nutcracker" in Portland this season.
So does PNB's 2008 "Nutcracker" hide future superstars amid its dancing mice, whirling dervishes and ballerinas in floating skirts?
Undoubtedly.
A Sunday evening performance revealed the usual polished performances from the PNB company's dancers.
Dancing the leading roles of the adult Clara and her Prince, principal dancers Carla Korbes and Stanko Milov could serve as model for any of a dozen Disney Princesses and Princes. Small, blonde and absolutely precise in her lovely lines, Korbes whipped through pirouettes with a glowing smile.
The tall, dark and handsome Milov gave his Prince not only his trademark strength shown in the high lifts of his partner, but also a truly genial character, tender in all the right moments.
Kiyon Gaines, another fantastic leaper at PNB, made his dervish truly whirl as well as being a fierce opponent for the Nutcracker as warrior mouse. In the Commedia, Josh Spell continues to show his growth as a dancer, partnering the equally fine Jodie Thomas and Sabrina Alabi. Ariana Lallone slinked her way through the elegant Peacock, always a showstopper in Act II, and Mara Vinson led a bevy of lovelies through the Waltz of the Flowers.
But the night, as always, belonged to the children of the PNB School. From the emotive Eileen Kelly as the young Clara to the energetic DJ Heath as her mischief of a brother Fritz to the littlest girl at the party with wonderful real moniker of Tiger Lily McDaniel, the children danced with a joy that remains undiminished after 25 years of performances.
After all, to the youngest of casts and audiences, this is all brand-new, a tradition that is just starting in their lives.
Fittingly, on Christmas Eve, the company will dance its 1,000th performance of the "Nutcracker." Be assured that the Christmas tree will grow magically through the ceiling, the snow will fall indoors, and literally hundreds of children in the audience and on the stage will spin into the night with dreams of ballet firmly fastened in their heads.
For more information on this year's production of the "Nutcracker," see www.pnb.org.
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