This Season's Final Performance of The Nutcracker

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Parent Category: Film and the Arts

Category: Reviews

Published on Monday, 24 January 2011 05:39

Written by Jack Angstreich

On the evening of Sunday, January 2nd, 2011, New York City Ballet presented the last performance of the season of their annual presentation of George Balanchine's The Nutcracker.

The orchestra, under the baton of Clotilde Otranto, sounded especially fine. Balanchine's choreography here doesn't approach his greatest works until the gorgeous Waltz of the Snowflakes at the end of the first Act; the second Act, which contains the greater portion of the score's best music, is quintessential Balanchine throughout.

I would have liked more discipline from the corps de ballet but the dancing of several of the strongest principals in the company raised this performance above average. Megan Fairchild as the Sugarplum Fairy was at her near best in her Dance of the same name.

Her pas de deux with the often superb Joaquin De Luz as her cavalier was more uncertain, partly as the foreseeable consequence of De Luz's shorter stature; however, they both excelled in the ensuing solo variations, especially de Luz whose athleticism was notably admirable here.

Teresa Reichlen as Coffee in the Arabian Dance was quite good while Daniel Ulbricht -- another short dancer with athletic gifts -- showed off splendidly, if inconsistently, in the Russian Dance and the Finale. The highlight of the evening, however, was the lovely Sara Mearns, exquisite as Dewdrop in the magnificent Waltz of the Flowers.

The Nutcracker
New York City Ballet
January 2, 2011
David H. Koch Theater
20 Lincoln Center Plaza
New York, NY 10023
212-870-5640

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