4 out of 5 stars
Any production of “The Nutcracker” is at its best when it is creative and indulgent in the story’s fanciful side.
The Carolina Ballet’s performance Saturday afternoon in Memorial Hall succeeded most when it engaged the magical, imaginative aspect of the timeless ballet.
“The Nutcracker,” with music by composer Pyotr Ilyich Tchaikovsky, tells the well-known story of a little girl whose toy nutcracker comes to life and takes her to a magical land of leaping candies and twirling flowers.
The Carolina Ballet’s opening performance — the first of three shows last weekend at UNC as part of the Carolina Performing Arts series — attracted a crowd full of families and school-age children.
And the company knows how to enthrall its young viewers, most of whom know little about ballet.
The audience let out a collective “ooh” when the life-size dolls popped out of the box during the Christmas party scene. Children cheered at the bunnies’ handsprings and giggled at the erratically twitching Rat King during the battle scene.
The biggest whistles of the night came when the curtain rose for Act II, revealing 12 tiny, swaying dancers dressed as truffles.
And the more technically challenging pieces performed by company members scored their biggest audience approval when the Carolina Ballet’s creative and fun side was on display.
The company makes its “Waltz of the Flowers,” usually one of the show’s more serious pieces, unique by transforming the soloist ballerina into a butterfly who flits in and out of the other dancers.
And the Russian candy canes, always a hit with their high leaps and synchronized turns, brought an energy that the elegant but lackluster Spanish chocolates couldn’t quite achieve.
The Carolina Ballet pays meticulous attention to detail in costuming. Each soldier costume has 51 handsewn buttons, and the 12 flower tutus sported nearly 200 handpainted petals, according to the company’s Web site.
And the sets, which move and grow and rather noisily spray real snow across the stage, appeared to have burst straight from the fairy tale.
A few numbers didn’t quite match that level of originality and expert execution. The dance of the Chinese tea, though impressive with its extremely high jumps, lacked its usual character. The dancers in the “Journey Through the Snow” struggled to move in unison.
But the magic was still there.
Contact the Arts Editor at artsdesk@unc.edu.
