The Milwaukee Ballet’s Nutcracker creates a child’s worldwithout condescension. It charms like a happy youngster running up to you withopen arms. Michael Pink’s choreography is also intellectually satisfying inthat careful attention is paid to narrative logic and psychology. The Christmasparty at the well-heeled mansion, with maids and great platters of pastries andrelatives who enjoy group dancing, is shockingly interrupted when the boys finda dead rat and a horrified adult tosses the carcass into the furnace withdisastrous aromatic results. Later, in young Clara’s dream, a rat bursts fromthe furnace to seek revenge. Each element of the dream that constitutes most ofthe ballet can be found in the carefully drawn relationships and events of thatparty, rearranged as a child might wish.
The production istop-notch. Zack Brown’s costumes and sets, with rolling and flying pieces anddrastic shifts of scale and palette, are warmly magical. Lighting designerDavid Grill is a genius with color and mood. The Ballet Orchestra underPasquale Laurino revealed the full scope of the music and the MilwaukeeChildren’s Choir sang with intense beauty.
On opening night, adultsCourtney Kramer and Michael Linsmeier were captivating as the free-spiritedchildren Clara and Fritz, so human in this land of rodents and desserts. Pinkgives them wonderful dances. In the Busby Berkeley-inspired “Waltz of theFlowers,” for example, they leapt and spun among the dancing flowers in totalabandonment to the music, just as I would have done at that age.
As Clara’s older sisterMarie and her dreamboat Karl, Diana Stetsura and David Hovhannisyan werethrilling. Their swooning Act One duet of young love was gasp-inducing, as wastheir impeccable, classical second-act pas de deux with its perfectly timedlifts.
Darren McIntyre broughtthe right ambiguity and an inexhaustible stash of magic glitter to the pivotalrole of Drosselmeyer. Raven Wales’and Douglas McCubbin’s erotic Arabian Dance was a jaw-dropping knockout. Alsosublime were the Shepherdess and Clown Dolls of Valerie Harmon and Ryan Martin.Every child and adult dancer in the huge cast delighted.
