Talmi 'Nutcracker' at Palace: palatial, glittering with hordes of children

Talmi Entertainment performed Tchaikovsky's "The Nutcracker" on Wednesday at The Palace Theatre in Albany. 

If you have seen one “Nutcracker,” you have not seen them all.
 
The ballet delight of the holiday season has a template, for sure, guided by Tchaikovsky. It opens with a holiday party where young girl receives a nutcracker doll as a Christmas gift. After the festivities, she slumbers and falls into a romantic reverie with her nutcracker who transforms into a prince. But it’s always in that coming-of-age dream, envisioned by the girl (often named Clara, sometimes Marie), where the classic diverges.
 
Talmi Entertainment (formerly known as the Moscow Ballet) offered a glittering rendering on Wednesday night at the Palace Theatre. Its lush palatal backdrops (by Berkshire designer Carl Sprague), gold lame trimmed costumes (designed by Arthur Oliver) and fine capable dancers, many Ukrainian, offered up plenty of eye candy to the crowd. And the house was packed, thanks to the horde of local children who were cast in nearly every scene – including those in the round-the-world divertissements, scenes typically reserved for the professionals.
 
The production, choreographed by Viktor Davyduik, also casts dreamy Clara with an adult dancer. It's a good thing as in her mind-bending journey, she also appears as the Snow Queen and the Sugarplum Fairy. It’s a tall order for any dancer to play multiple roles that span the entire ballet. Karyna Shatkovskaya pulled it off with aplomb – traveling through the first act as a wide-eyed child excited for Christmas and ending as a mature woman of confidence and style as the commanding Sugarplum.

Her Nutcracker Prince, danced by Rustem Imangaliev, while courtly couldn’t match her calm. His tours en air had momentum and height, but his landings were dangerously off-kilter. The audience braced for a potential hard fall every time he launched himself into the sky.
 
The stars of the evening were Aiya Melis and Rafael Urazov who dance the Arabian variation, but also made an appearance at the first act party as wind-up Moorish dolls and at the opening of the second act as the doves of peace. Davyduik obviously wanted to capitalize on their appeal. However, he shouldn’t have bothered, as their awe-inspiring strength – body-bending lifts and acrobatics — didn’t reveal themselves until their last appearance in the Arabian dance.
 
Davyduik also wanted to take advantage of the potential for parents, grandparents and siblings to buy tickets by casting a throng of children in nearly every scene. While adorable, especially those who danced around and in front of the snowflake fairies, it was also distracting and detracting.  That was particularly the case in the second act where most of the real dancing happens. But it was hard to see the professionals with cute kids clustered at the rim of the stage blocking the audience’s view.
 
It's unclear why Davyduik didn’t use the children for the Mother Ginger portion of the dance, which is generally where “Nutcracker” choreographers cast their tiniest dancers. In this production, there was no Mother Ginger. Davyduik used the music instead to unite the Chinese, French, Arabian, Spanish and Russian (here dubbed Folkloric) couples in a friendly pas de dix.
 
Regardless, of all the many “The Nutcracker” ballets happening in the Capital Region, this remains one of the best for both production designs and strong dancing.
 
Finally, producers were wise to remove all references to Russia in the name of the company and in the ballet. Americans can't abide or support Russian treachery in Ukraine. However, art has the power to unite. I hope and pray it will.