The Holiday Season continues at Mark on the Arts with the season’s seminal dance classic, Pyotr Ilyich Tchaikovsky’s immortal masterpiece, The Nutcracker, performed by the prestigious Cincinnati Ballet, with stunning choreography by Artistic Director Emerita of the company Victoria Morgan. Tchaikovsky’s opus is based on Alexander Dumas Pere’s revised edition of E.T.A. Hoffman’s The Nutcracker and the Mouse King.
The story is a familiar one thanks to dozens of amateur and professional productions, and numerous children’s Christmas movies and books, with a score that has been utilized for everything from Bugs Bunny and Animaniacs to Disney and innumerable television commercials and movie soundtracks. This makes it a perfect gateway piece to introduce children to the classical masterpiece, which it was refreshing to see so many parents passing the legacy on to future dance and music enthusiasts. And the children were spellbound.
Act 1 is the story of young Clara (Miharu Kikuchi), who, on the eve of her parents’ annual social Christmas soiree, is anticipating what magical gifts she will receive this year. After gifts are presented to her and the other aristocrats’ children, the mysterious, magical Herr Drosselmeyer (Joey Dlearo) arrives and, after a show chock full of magical flamboyance enough to put Chriss Angel to shame (dresses change color, dancing dolls come to human-size animated life), he bestows Clara with a colorful and, as we will find, magical Nutcracker. As the party winds down and the household retires, Clara sneaks down to play with her new toy when Herr Drosselmeyer magically appears and brings the Nutcracker to full-sized life. When the human-sized mice arrive for mayhem, the toy soldiers come to life and battle them while the Nutcracker takes on the dreaded Mouse King himself (Nickolas Motley). When the toys are victorious, Drosselmeyer transforms the Nutcracker into a handsome prince (Zander Magolnick) and transports the couple to a magical snow forest where they meet the Snow Queen and King (Bella Ureta and Marcus Romeo) and their “Dance of the Snowflakes”. When the snowstorm subsides, a hot weather balloon magically appears to take Clara and her Prince away.
Act 2 is almost what we in modern parlance would call a spin-off, where the balloon lands in the magical Land of the Sweets, and the guests are welcomed by the glamourous Sugar Plum Fairy and her Cotton Candy Consort (Sirui Liu and Philip Fedulov). They call for a dance concert for all the confections to entertain the guests, then close the show with their own elegant pas de deux. When they send the pair on their way, Clara awakes from a dream back home with her prized Christmas toys.
Morgan’s choreography is executed beautifully and fluidly by her stellar company as expected. Standouts in the Land of the Sweets include the Arabian Dancers (Amanda Perez Duarte and Nasrullah Abdur-Rahmann) in a passionate “Coffee”, an athletic Chinese dance inspired by martial arts in “Tea” (Joshua Fisk, complete with a festive corps embodying a parade Dragon to battle), a vain “Lollipup” (Simon Plant) preening for his adoring backup girl pups, and the very athletic trio of Russian Cossacks (Llonnis del Yoro Cintra, Thomas Dilley, and Hibiki Tsukamoto) who dazzle with their frenetic and acrobatic “Trepak”. And, of course, Ureta & Romeo and Liu and Feduloy are simply elegant and breathtakingly graceful as the royal couples of the Snow Forest and Land of the sweets.
Scenic Designer John Ezell does a magnificent job of bringing the reality of the Christmas Party and the Fantasy Worlds to life, even blending the two in a magic segment where Herr Dosselmeyer enlarges not only the Nutcracker and the mice villains, but the entire ballroom and Christmas tree to go with it. HIs designs are by turns fantastical and opulent in their scope of ornate and detail. And special not for the fun motorized mice with wheels who remote in and out of the first act.
Costume Designer Carrie Robbins provides gorgeous jewel toned costumes of the dozens of styles and varieties called for by the various specialty dances, in bright jewel tones and saturated pastels, no ballet pink here. They are elegant and accentuate the dancers precise movements in designs both international contemporary for the various sweet treats and classical for the breathtaking soloists.
Children area also captivated by their employment of a corps of child dancers as party guests and baby mice in act 1, and baby chicks to Mother Hen in Act 2. It is important that the children in the audience see there is a place for them in the disciplined and exhilarating world of professional ballet.
it would be remiss to not acknowledge Alyssa Wang’s masterful conduction of her perfectly balanced orchestra. In a venue known for big brassy production numbers and showstopping 11:00 numbers, it was uncharacteristically calming to hear a superlative professional orchestra with load of strings and reeds to flesh out Tchaikovski’s multi-faceted score.
A general note: your children don’t understand the political climate of this year’s holiday season. I would highly recommend introducing your young ones to your love of the ballet and theatrical arts with the various fare provided this season of joy and love. Be bigger. Be better. Don’t let your hate for one individual outweigh your love of the fine arts the Kennedy Center is revered for. Keep the Arts alive this season while you have a voice.
This sumptuous production is only in town for Thanksgiving Weekend, so plan early to make room for the remaining shows. Look for our next installment in the Mark on the Arts Holiday traditions, the 25th Annual Christmas Album review and Playlist, coming soon. And The Kennedy Center has extended us to other various holiday specialty fare as time and commitments persist, so look for more from the Kennedy Center Holiday roster this month.
All photos courtesy of Cincinnati Ballet
The show runs 2 hours with a 20 minute intermission.
Cincinatti Ballet The Nutcracker currently plays through November 30, 2025, in the Opera House at the John F. Kennedy Center for the Performing Arts, 2700 F Street NW, Washington DC 20566. For tickets, call the box office at 202.467.4600 or purchase online