Moscow City Ballet’s “Nutcracker” at Richmond Theatre

I admit upfront that I’m not much of a ballet fan although I have been a number of times. Sometimes it was for business entertaining but mostly because when my daughter was young, like many other little girls, she was ballet mad.

My favourites in the past have been the English National Ballet’s production of Swan Lake at The Royal Albert Hall (with 60 swans it is a truly magnificent sight) and the Kirov (Mariinsky) Ballet performing Nutcracker at The Royal Opera House in Covent Garden. But one of my friends told me that she had never been to the ballet so I decided that I would take her along to see how the MCB tackled Nutcracker.

Our dress circle seats gave us a great view of the orchestra and the stage and the mixed audience was excited as the music started – there were groups of all ages, couples, a fair few young (aspiring?) ballerinas and, surprisingly, a group of nuns. The curtains went up to reveal a Christmas scene.

Now ballet experts will know that often the storyline can be a bit thin – but Nutcracker is OK. It’s Christmas. There’s a party. Clara’s Godfather gives her a book about a nutcracker and the mouse king and then (as a wizard) conjures up three puppets – a nutcracker (soldier), a doll and a mouse king. After the party, Clara is woken by mice and dreams she is a princess and that the nutcracker has become a handsome prince and there is a battle of mice against soldiers. The room is transformed into a forest, there’s snow and flowers and a Flower Fairy. The battle continues until she finally wakes.

Scene one was vibrant – rich colours, beautiful costumes, jolly and jaunty dancing, graceful masked adult dancers and a host of children filled the stage. I wasn’t really into the production as much as my friend and everyone around me until I watched the dancer who played the doll – she was incredible.

By the time we got to scene two I was engrossed. There was a sequence where the wizard and Clara dance – the lifts, turns and drops were breath-taking. The strength of the lead men (Daniil Orlov and Talgat Kozhabaev) was awesome and the perfect precision and elegance of the prima ballerinas (Alevtina Lapshina and Lilia Oryekhova) sublime. Then 18 of the corps de ballet in pale blue dresses came onto stage with lights flickering to create the impression of snow flakes and I thought “now THIS is ballet”. It was lovely to watch.

The 50 minutes of the first half passed quickly but I was grateful for the opportunity to stretch my legs and enjoy a glass of wine. The second act picked up where the last was left (surely he didn’t hold her up in the air during the entire interval?) but then the stage was filled with a host of female dancers in dusky pink flowing skirts and around eight soloists in the prettiest sticky-out tutus in rich reds, deep pinks and jewel colours - all with sparkly tiaras. I could hear little girls all around me practically swooning at the sight. Their mums were equally spellbound by the male dancers – in both black and white tights – with sparkling jackets – with possibly the most perfect physiques you are ever likely to see.

After the sugar plum fairy piece (which was as marvellous as you would expect) sweets from around the world are used to showcase some dancing from other cultures – in this production there were matadors for the chocolate from Spain, violet dressed acrobats for coffee from Arabia, Russian dancers and, my favourite, cheeky tea from China – the jumps here were quite astonishing. Everyone will recognise at least one of the pieces of music in this section (even if they are singing “Every one’s a fruit and nut case” like Frank Muir in their head like me). All the dancers were on point here – they made it look so easy (and we all know that it takes incredible strength and years of practice to get every move, pirouette and line so perfect).

Sometimes ballet can be a bit, well, stuffy. But the MCB were all smiles and fun. Without doubt they are truly skilled dancers – with phenomenal physiques, poise, strength and elegance – but they don’t seem to take themselves too seriously.

I have to say that I also really liked the programme – as well as explaining the story it provided a fairly detailed history of ballet from its Italian/French court roots right up to the present day. So if you are a ballet novice – this might be the production for you but you’ll have to hurry – last performance tomorrow (Sunday) before they move onto Brighton. However, next Friday I shall be returning to Richmond Theatre – with my daughter - to see a more contemporary production by BalletBoyz.

http://www.atgtickets.com/venue/Richmond-Theatre/45/

http://www.moscowcityballet.info/main/