I want to read...
Nutcracker
La Fille mal Gardáe

Theater Lüneburg, 10.02.07

I am, of course, going to be rather biased in this review. But biased for or against it? Hard to say.

This is the second, (Only the second!!!) Big ballet that I've danced in Lüneburg. And what I heard in the change room seems, so far, to be true. "The ballet director doesn't trust ANYONE in their first year; In the first year you get the smallest, most pitiful rolls possible. In your second year, you will dance much more. And in your third year, you will be put in everything." Well, I'm dancing much more in this piece than in last years. It is the fourth version of Nutcracker that I've taken part of in my life, (Not counting the isolated Pas de Deux which I did my first year in Estonia.) Where do I start with it though?

It is danced with fewer people than in most ballet companies; six men, seven women, three extras and ten children. (Most companies would at the very least use twenty children!) The party scene was the standard party-scene, although all the children were girls. Oh, And Clara was one of the company members, and on point, as opposed to a little girl who's responsibilities were only a bit of acting, but mostly sitting still and not fidgeting while others danced.

Where it truly diverged from the normal version was... the rats. There were NO rats. For the music where the first rats come on stage, we instead had Clara looking for her nutcracker doll, (left by the tree after the party,) but she must hide, because her granny comes down, to have a cookie, and a glass of sherry.

After that, for what I think of as the "Tree growing music," -When everything gets big, or when Clara gets small, we instead only have Clara dancing around, happy with her Nutcracker. (which is hard to make interesting, because it goes on for a number of minutes. But Burmeister did a credible job of it; if not interesting, it's also not boring.)

Then, (in most versions,) comes the battle between the Rats and the soldiers, in which the Nutcracker comes to fight the Rat king, and just before being beaten, the Nutcracker is saved by Clara hitting the rat with her shoe. But there's no rats. Hmm. This has been turned into the Nightmare scene. The corps de ballet comes on in our grown-up party-guest costumes, with extra white gloves, and white masks on. We are the monsters in her imagination, and we have Come-To-Take-Her-Doll-Away!!! (Evil laughter!) Of course I don't know what this scene looks like, but I can say that I feel a bit silly doing it. She's scared of us, and wants her Nutcracker back. Ok. But it doesn't GO anywhere from there. We jump around her, with continually larger Nutcracker dolls, not letting her have it (them) back, Then Drosselmeyer comes and scares us off, and leaves the REAL (dancer) Nutcracker there with her. -And the two of them dance. I don't resent this part of the evening, -It's no worse than being a toy soldier, and marching here and there and pointing a rifle! I just have a feeling that for the public it would be more interesting to see a battle.

Snow scene... has a lovely Snow Man at the beginning, (while the rest of us are finishing our costume changes.) The rest of the scene is pretty standard: Snow Queen and her Price, four pairs of Snow flakes, ("Ice crystals" in this version. What's the difference? A little more blue on the costume.) And Clara somewhere in the middle of it all.

* Intermission * (Like all intermissions. Nothing special happened here!)

Second act... starts with Clara arriving in Candy land of course. But what to do with the bit of music where she Normally tells the Sugar Plum Faery about the battle with the mice? It's clear in the music that the battle theme comes back. Well... our version goes so: Clara gives a kiss to the Nutcracker, because she's so glad he brought her here. -But the kiss breaks a spell that had been cast upon him! So the lights go funny, and he dances around in Transmorgrificating agony, then tears off his mustache and shirt. Ta Da!!! He's actually a prince!!! He's not a piece of wood at all! Hooray for Pinoccio!!! -I mean Nutcracker!!! That idea worked, I think. It's a nice touch. I'm just not sure if the... exact way it's done fits: He goes from the Doll form, (Red military jacket, and a big black moustache,) to the human/prince form, which is this: Half naked. True, when topless, all that skin makes him clearly human. But does it... FIT? In the children's ballet? I'm not sure about my own views here. I'm just not sure.

After that... I dance the Spanish, with one woman. -with one girl. -with one dancer. -With one female dancer. -With Rosa. Let's just say "With Rosa." because everything else sounds somehow funny. I was ever so glad when I first got this roll, because, (As I said at the beginning,) my first year was very little dancing. And this dance actually had a double tour at the end of it! My ballet director trusted me enough to give me a double tour on stage! (That's certainly getting somewhere.) -And then we got the costumes sorted out. And I had real, true, traditional flamenco shoes. They were great for all the stamping and steps that I did in the dance... but the double tour was hell. The shoes worked in nearly every possible way to make this one classical ballet step impossible to do well. And I resented them so!!! Thank gods that Burmeister noticed the difficulties, and four days before the premiere said I should try the dance wearing normal Jazz boots, (Next best thing to Ballet slippers for dancing Ballet in.) I have happily never put the Flamenco shoes on since. Aside from the double tour at the end, what is the Spanish like? Hmm... not much. It's a lot of attitude, and a lot of stamping. Not physically demanding, but it needed a number of rehearsals to get the Feeling, the little details just right. ("Don't bend your wrist that way... flick your hand here a little faster. No, not like that, perhaps like this?")

Then comes Arabian, a boy and girl (Both of them full grown dancers, yes?) Lots of lifts, and flexed hands. As per usual. Chinese was two girls, which I haven't seen before, but seems like an obvious enough option. It is also more or less as can be expected. Russian is then three boys, including me. A bit of a cardio work-out, a little hard on the knees, but I've known worse, and the audience seems to like it. Oh, and I think I look good in the costume. (And the shoes are perfect: properly made Ballet Boots. I love them. They're the best things I have on my feet during the whole performance.)

The "Marzipan" or "Merlitons" or what ever other names they have were something else though: It was one of the old dancers from the company with a Rhythmic Gymnastic ribbon. So she danced a combination of that... with ballet, -and then had the Clara joining in with her own ribbon. (And watching Clara do her best gave us an appreciation of how hard it truly is to control the damned thing. Those who can do it well make it Look easy, but it's not.) After that the children all come on for the Clown Dance. That is also about what could be expected... except that they don't come out of a giant skirt. -And the older dancer stays on with them, as head clown and does her own... erm... slap-stick / cabaret / some-thing-else-I-cant-find-a-word-for routine.

Then comes Flower waltz, which is as could be expected. Four pairs of dancers, plus Clara, dancing with Drosselmeyer. As normal. Grand Pas de Deux is also fairly standard, but seems to be more original choreography than I expected. (Many many companies do the original, or a variation of the original choreography for this Pas de Deux.) And finale... is finale. Everyone comes on and waltzes a little more, and does a few steps of their own style.

I've written quite a bit, without saying what I think of it, wouldn't you say? In my opinion... there are only a few places that truly Drag... and are too long. Most of the choreography is decent, or better than average. (But what is the wierd dance the grownups do in the first act? I would have thought that some old court-dance style would have suited better!) The costumes are nearly all nice, and for every bit of scenery which I find... bad, there's some other one which I find good.

All in all a decent version of this piece, with some highlights, and some... other parts. :-)

Theater Lüneburg, Spring 2008

So here's another biased review. And I warn you now that I'm feeling fed up and tired with the theater, so it's going to be an unfair and unkind review. (What I mean to say is that there are probably many good things about the production, but I don't care in the least for the few good points of the theater at this time.)

This is my overall favourite ballet in the world. It's light, full of love, full of fun, with catchy tunes , upbeat tempos that just makes one want to dance. And that really set me up for a disappointment. I've even been given one of the two male solo roles: Not the leading nice, poor yet noble-hearted lover; The rich, immature, silly, witless prat. Don't get me wrong: it's a wonderful roll, and one that I can play exceedingly well. I love hamming it up, and "goofing off." I've been told by a number of people that my acting skill (as pertaining to the ballet world,) are one of my strongest points. And it's careful acting which the roll of "Alain, the Happy Idiot" most requires. So this production still could have been one of the best things I've ever done.

BUT,
-it might have been that the choreographer hates me, so gave me terrible steps.
-it might have been that the choreographer has no confidence in my dancing, so gave me over-easy steps.
-it might have been that she doesn't understand that "silly" steps can be other than "stupid, pointless" steps.
-it might be that when she first choreographed this ballet 10 years ago, the person she had for this role was a total klutz, who couldn't make a single ballettic step presentable. So 10 years ago she made the role one where no dancing technique was required. And now she's just too lazy or uninspired to change anything about it.

But the result remains the same: I've got one of my favourite roles in the ballet world, but it's been choreographed in such a way to be completely unfulfilling. (To be half way fair, after one and a half hours I come on, and "grow up," and get to do a 3 minute Pas de Deux, 5 Brisées, 2 Entrechat six, 4 Cabrioles, and a Pirouette. But it still feels like small compensation.)

But what am I to do? I'm a dancer. I'm a professional. So I give it all I can, and play the stupid role to the best of my abilities. The choreographer thinks she's done something wonderful for me. She's full of praise for how very very well I perform it. The public loves it too, and on occasion I get louder applause than anyone else. I've gotten compliments from other people in the theater, and from some people I know outside of the theater. The feeling is unanimous; I'm doing the role perfectly. I'm just so far from being contented with it.

What else should be said? The Pas de Deux that the main pair has is all right, with some nice moments. The costumes are pretty good, and the public here likes them more than I do. (And that's what's important.) And in two hours I'll be in makeup, getting ready for it again tonight. -[Sarcasm on] And don't I just feel motivated for that!!! Weee-Hoooooooo! [Sarcasm off.]

Here's the press clipping from our premiere. (Sorry, no translation yet.)