The two-dancer Dove of Peace, a quartet of 12-foot puppets representing regional residents of the Land of Peace and Harmony and a cadre of area children are all part of Moscow Ballet's Great Russian Nutcracker, with two performances today at Little Rock's Robinson Center Performance Hall.
Producer Akiva Talmi bills the production, which has been on the road for decades, as "the biggest peace advocacy ballet tour ever."
The Great Russian Nutcracker
3 and 7 p.m. today, Robinson Center Performance Hall, 426 W. Markham St. at Broadway, Little Rock. Moscow Ballet’s annual touring production of Tchaikovsky’s classic ballet includes professional dancers from Russia and former Soviet republics and area children.
Tickets: $31-$71 plus service charges
(800) 745-3000
In this Victorian version of Peter Ilich Tchaikovsky's classic Christmas ballet, 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; in most American productions, following the lead of famed choreographer George Balanchine, she's called Clara) receives a toy nutcracker from her mysterious inventor/doll maker Uncle Drosselmeyer.
It magically comes to life as a handsome Nutcracker Prince; together they defeat the evil Mouse King and his army of rodents and travel through the Land of Snow to the Land of Peace and Harmony (traditionally known as the Land of Sweets), with the Dove of Peace as their guide. (Unlike American productions, in which Clara is a charming child who occasionally gets up on pointe, Masha has to work -- the ballerina who takes her on also dances the Snow pas de deux and the prima ballerina role of the Sugar Plum Fairy.)
The 12-foot puppets in the Land of Peace and Harmony represent classical Russian culture and myth while incorporating aspects of other cultures, according to a news release. As the professional dancers assay the Spanish, Arabian, Russian and French divertissements, the Spaniard bull represents the gift of daring; the Arabian elephant the gift of wisdom; the Russian bear bestows strength and the French unicorn imparts imagination.
Through the Moscow Ballet's "Dance With Us" program, a few dozen young locals from Little Rock's Dancers' Corner School of Dance join Moscow Ballet's professional dancers as party children, mice, snowflakes, snow maidens and attendants for the Act II divertissements.
The lineup:
• Party Children: Rebekah Barnes, Alex Miller, Jacey Harris, Ella Grace Harris, Madison Robinson, Mallory Westerfield, Catherine McCraw, Carly Santifer, Rebecca Yakoubian, Caitlin Berryhill, Bridgett Best, Marlee Hammock, Haighlee Dorris, Ella Horton, Sophia Janis, Rebekah White
• Mice: Bridgett Best, Sloan Austin, Sadie Edwards, Aurora Crowson, Emma Hinkle, Olivia Tabor, Marlee Hammock, Ella Horton, Audrey Parker, Zoey Parsons
• Snowflakes: Rivers Clark, Ava Horton, Joelle Stehle, Karleigh Crowson, Miriam Meek, Olivia Tabor, Sadie Edwards, Luca Peek, Emma Hinkle, Elena Porter, Leah White
• Snow Maidens: Caitlin Berryhill, Yaretzi Carranza, Raeleigh DeLeon, Meghan Dorris, Cora LeMaster, Anna Weeks, Sarah White, Catherine Yakoubian
• Chinese Variation: Kaliya Cherry, Annaleah Witsell; "Small": Caitlin Berryhill, Sloan Austin, Cora LeMaster, Mallory Westerfield
• Spanish Variation: Emily Cochran, Cecelia Warren; "Small": Rebekah Barnes, Haighlee Dorris, Sophia Janis, Ella Grace Harris
• Russian Variation: Anna Weeks, Catherine Yakoubian; "Small": Jacey Harris, Alex Miller
• French: Madison Robinson, Sadie Edwards, Carly Santifer, Rebecca Yakoubian.
And Little Rock will be one of the cities on the tour in which a Moscow Ballet Musical Wunderkind -- violinist Keenan Peet, who has played in the Arkansas Symphony Youth Orchestra and the Arkansas All-State Orchestra -- accompanies a principal ballerina, Olena Pecheniuk, who will be dancing the "Dying Swan" from Tchaikovsky's Swan Lake. That precedes the 3 p.m. Nutcracker performance.
Weekend on 12/27/2018