CENTERblog

The Mouse Needs CPR

by Shay Ward - University of Alaska Anchorage

What is the best way to recover from the warzone shopping experience as we officially start the post-Thanksgiving countdown to Christmas? Why, by partaking in viewing the classic holiday presentation of The Nutcracker, of course! On the afternoon of November 26th at the Atwood Concert Hall in downtown Anchorage, an audience was treated to The Anchorage Concert Association’s production of The Nutcracker-a performance based on the story by E.T.A. Hoffmann, The Nutcracker and the Mouse King. The performance is one classically scored by Tchaikovsky about a young girl named Clara, who amidst the holiday revelry, falls asleep and dreams that her sweetheart, Hans, transforms into a real, life-sized nutcracker, and they (along with the audience) embark on a magical adventure reminiscent of a true fairytale.

The Eugene Ballet Company partnered with local dancers from The Alaska Dance Theatre to tell the tale through dance of a delightful and sometimes frightening escapade through the Mouse Kingdom and the Land of the Sweets. The costumes, designed by Amy Panganiban and Lito John Demetita were as extravagant as you would expect of such a whimsical tale, yet not so much that they detracted from the story or the performance. The set design, by former Disney artist Don Carson, was enchanting, evocative of something out of a storybook. Set changes were often incorporated in to the storyline; the mice who crept in to Clara’s room when she fell asleep after her family’s holiday party transformed the bedroom set into the Mouse Kingdom while dancing and terrorizing her as the music ominously predicted the fight scene between the heroic Nutcracker and the evil Mouse King.

Although the story of The Nutcracker is one that is well-known, The Eugene Ballet Company did put their own spin on the production, performed in two acts with four scenes and a prologue. In the scene where the defeated Mouse King is dying, the company made it very comical and overly dramatic, even adding CPR being performed by one of the Mouse King’s loyal subjects in an attempt to resuscitate him. During the fight scene between the Nutcracker’s soldiers and the Mouse King’s, the dancers portraying the Nutcracker’s soldiers weren’t exactly moving in sync with each other during the choreography, but otherwise the execution of the choreography, done by Toni Pimble, was in sync with both the music and the other dancers (in the instances of group performances during the show.)

Korean-born Yun-Kyung Kim, the principal dancer who portrayed Clara in the matinee performance of The Nutcracker, demonstrated her classical training in her expressive performance of the young girl transported to a dreamland during the presentation. Conductor Robert Ashens excelled at leading the musicians in the festive score that accompanied the story. The Anchorage Concert Association, The Eugene Ballet, and all of the others who came together to present this classic succeeded in bringing the traditional tale to life for Anchorage residents once again this holiday season.

The Nutcracker Ballet

Anchorage Concert Association

Friday, November 26, 2010 at 2pm

Atwood Concert Hall