PNB’s Holiday Magic Endures With These Waltzes
Even for a longtime attendee, Pacific Northwest Ballet’s festive tradition still packs plenty of Christmas magic. George Balanchine’s The Nutcracker performs through 12/28.
For digital ticket holders, the streaming version is available December 20-28.
There is a unique energy to opening day of The Nutcracker every year, no matter the time or place. Whether witnessing the sparkly buzz as a long-ago performer or over the last three decades as an audience member, I’ve noticed it enough times to stop questioning its source and just revel in it.
Pacific Northwest Ballet’s day-after-Thanksgiving opening performance of this year’s George Balanchine’s The Nutcracker was especially delicious, magnified by my mom and kiddo sitting either side of me. Both of them relish Christmasy things, and watching a ballet with people who can truly live in the moment and share in this delight is the biggest gift this reviewer could ask for. The lobby of McCaw Hall was crowded with excited families and couples and friends, some dressed in cozy fleece and jeans, others in suits and velvet gowns. The orchestra pit glowed with individualized Christmas lights hanging from the musicians’ stands, courtesy of PNB orchestra violinist Tom Dziekonski, as the orchestra, conducted by Emil de Cou, wove spells around the theatre with the start of Tchaikovsky’s overture, the sound completely filling up the nearly 3,000 seat hall.
The story of The Nutcracker is based on an early 19th century German fairy tale, wherein a young girl is gifted a toy nutcracker that comes to life and helps her defeat the evil Mouse King during a midnight battle between rodents and life-size toys. Her victory is rewarded by a trip to the Land of the Sweets, where she is entertained by dancing snowflakes, flowers, and edible treats from around the world. Yes, there are cultural question marks within the 132-year-old ballet — variations with outdated ethnic themes, gendered character roles — but hey, what great teaching moments these can offer your family if you choose to address them.
PNB’s production opens with a short film set in an anonymous wintertime village, swooping the audience from high above nighttime forests into the Stahlbaum family’s Christmas Eve house party. A perfectly choreographed evening ensues, and if you look carefully you can observe little dramas taking place among characters on the sidelines: parents commiserating over badly behaved children, grandparents falling drunkenly into armchairs, a smallish little boy trying in vain for a dance partner. Followed by a battle scene between toy soldiers and oversize mice, Act I ends with Waltz of the Snowflakes, wherein an opening-day cast of PNB students and company dancers bourréed onstage in perfect synchronization, flitting and darting around the stage so quickly it was astonishing they didn’t collide like the thousands of snowflakes falling from the rafters.
PNB students Emilia Wyant and Ko Large, as Clara and The Nutcracker/Drosselmeier’s nephew, walked through the wintertime scene with appropriate delight. If nothing else, the wintertime scenery by children’s book author Ian Falconer is worth a trip to The Nutcracker. It’s impossible to not get lost in the giant trees laced with snow lining the sides of the stage, even if you’re not already mesmerized by the glowing Chihuly glass North Star sculpture hanging between the branches.
Act II’s Land of the Sweets offered up some big treats for the audience on opening day: a last-minute casting switch included soloist Luther DeMyer and corps member Melisa Guilliams as super sassy Hot Chocolate leads, and the increasingly impressive corps dancer Audrey Malek in the Coffee solo. Malek’s tight ballet technique and mature sense of artistry really knocked the Coffee solo out of the park, turning a traditionally sensual role into a powerful statement of individuality and strength.
Waltz of the Flowers, perhaps one of the Nutcracker’s most recognizable tunes, had a special ring to it this year. Notes of the harp from principal John Carrington rose above the theatre like a benediction during Friday afternoon’s performance, guiding the 14 flowers and principal dancer Sarah-Gabrielle Ryan’s Dewdrop Fairy around the stage with flawless timing. There are so many moving parts to this ballet, from the tiniest student performers to the seasoned principals to the giant pieces of intricately painted set pieces. Sometimes it all works, sometimes there are misses — but this afternoon that opening day magic weaved all the right spells and we witnessed perfection. Lucky us.
View scheduled casting for upcoming performances here.
George Balanchine’s The Nutcracker runs through 12/28 at Pacific Northwest Ballet (in McCaw Hall, Seattle Center/Mercer side). Tickets here. Tickets prices vary by seat and show time; best availability and lowest prices currently 12/11-15 (see here). Accessibility notes: main restrooms are gendered and multi-stall, with gender-neutral, single-stall restrooms available by most of them. Theatre and common areas are wheelchair accessible.
Run time: 2 hours, with intermission
Melody Datz Hansen is a freelance dance writer in Seattle. Her work is published in The Seattle Times, The Stranger, City Arts, and on her blog at melodydatz.com.