SPECIAL EVENT

Great Russian Nutcracker returns to Robinson Center

The “residents” of the Land of Peace and Harmony perform before a backdrop that features firebirds, a unicorn and other beasts.
The “residents” of the Land of Peace and Harmony perform before a backdrop that features firebirds, a unicorn and other beasts.

With the return to action of Little Rock's Robinson Center comes the return, after the same two-year hiatus, of Moscow Ballet and its production of The Great Russian Nutcracker, 7 p.m. today in Robinson's new Performance Hall.

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Special to the Democrat-Gazette/Moscow Ballet

Ballet master Andrey Batalov will dance the role of the Sugar Plum Cavalier and Tatiana Nazarkhevich dances the role of Masha in the Moscow Ballet’s Great Russian Nutcracker.

Joining the touring cast of more than three dozen ballerinas and danseurs from the Mariinsky, Kiev and other top schools and ballet companies in Russia and the former Soviet republics will be more than 40 young performers, ages 7-17, from Little Rock's Dancers' Corner School of Dance, playing party children, mice, snowflakes, snow sprites, snow maidens and attendants for the Act II divertissements.

The Great Russian Nutcracker

7 p.m. today, Robinson Center Performance Hall, West Markham Street and Broadway

Tickets: $28-$68 plus fees

(800) 745-3000

ticketmaster.com; nutcracker.com/buy-…

In this version of Peter Ilich Tchaikovsky's classic Christmas ballet, the central character is named Masha. (That's a diminutive of Marie, the heroine of E.T.A. Hoffman's 1816 story "The Nutcracker and the Mouse King," on which the ballet is based; the American version, as originally presented by George Balanchine, changed her name to Clara.)

Masha (Tatiana Nazarkhevich) receives a magical nutcracker as a Christmas gift from her mysterious inventor/doll maker Uncle Drosselmeyer, which comes alive as a handsome prince (Moscow Ballet's ballet master Andrey Batalov) and, with Masha's courageous aid, defeats the evil Mouse King and guides her through the Land of Snow to what in this production is called the Land of Peace and Harmony, with the Dove of Peace as their guide.

In addition to the "growing" Christmas tree that is a hallmark of any Nutcracker (this one extends to 60 feet) are new, hand-made costumes by resident designer Arthur Oliver, and sets and backdrops hand-painted in Russia, designed by award-winning Hollywood art designer Carl Sprague, that include Moscow's St. Basil's Cathedral, an icy Snow Forest and the firebirds, unicorns, tigers, and lions that populate Act II's Land of Peace and Harmony.

Nazarkhevich and Batalov will be dancing 45 performances as part of a tour this season, says Anna Radik, who will be dancing the Arabian Variation and one-half of the Dove of Peace's 20-foot wingspan (both with Sergey Dotsenko), and acted as a translator for the two other dancers.

"I've been dancing Nutcracker for 20 to 25 years," says Batalov, though naturally each time there are some differences in the choreography.

The first act, says Nazarkhevich, focuses a lot on pleasing the children in the audience -- particularly the party and battle scenes. "Everything for the adults is in the second act," she adds.

The Dove of Peace is unique to this production -- the two dancers "wing it" to guide Masha into the Land of Peace and Harmony.

Radik says the production has lots of uniquely Russian touches, including the famous onion domes of St. Basil's; Ded Moroz, aka Father Christmas, and Snegurochka, aka the Snow Maiden, in the Snow Forest scene; and a life-size matryoshka (nested) doll.

Moscow Ballet, a construct operation based in western Massachusetts, has been touring North America for 24 years with a repertoire that includes, in addition to The Great Russian Nutcracker, Tchaikovsky's other big ballets (Swan Lake and Sleeping Beauty) and Sergei Prokofiev's Romeo and Juliet and Cinderella.

Its "Dance With Us" program shares Russian ballet training with more than 5,000 American dance students each year, bringing them onstage in ancillary roles beside the professionals.

The local students taking part:

Act I -- Alex Miller, Sophia Janis, Lena Nelson, Ruthie Grace Moix, Jacey Harris, Madison Courage Fleck, Catherine McCraw, Mackenzie Bennett, Caitlin Berryhill, Rebekah White (party children); Nelson, Bennett, Janis, McCraw, Cora LeMaster, Abigail Bacot, Ella Grace Harris, Anna Whitehead (mice); Ella Horton, Bridgett Best, Emma Zheng, Mallory Westerfield, Naomi Burdette, Carly Santifer, Allie Mareen and Matilda Thessing (little snowflakes).

Act II -- Maryam Al-azzawi, Sarah Worthington, Rachel Worthington, Yaretzi Carranza, Josette Fernandez, Cecelia Warren, Frannie Edwards, Anna Samons, Sarah White, Lucy Draper, Annaleah Witsell, Olivia Bacot (snow maidens); Elizabeth Richard, Rebekah Senn (snow sprites); Thessing, Santifer, Flannery Hirrel, Katherine Claxton (Spanish Variation); Moix, Horton, Burdette, Mareen (Chinese Variation); Cecelia Warren, Hannah Alexander (Arabian Variation); and Miller, Janis, Gracie May and Dylan Fike (Russian Variation).

Weekend on 12/22/2016

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