Ballet Theatre UK: The Nutcracker

Concordia Theatre, Hinckley
December 8, 2024

While the ‘big’ Nutcrackers grab all the headlines, there are smaller-scale productions around worth catching too. They might not have all the special effects but are still magical, provide lots of entertainment, sending audiences home happy.

One such is by Ballet Theatre UK. It’s a production with no Drosselmeyer, so no magic tricks, and no grandparents No Fritz either, indeed no children other than Clara at all, and she’s a teenager. And no growing Christmas tree. Not that any of them are actually missed in artistic director Christopher Moore’s take on the seasonal favourite because it creates a fantasy of world that delights from start to finish with its fine storytelling, pleasing choreography that makes best use of the space available, and a lot of excellent dancing. The company looked in excellent form.

BTUK’s relatively small roster of dancers means a lot of quick changes as all but the leads take on multiple roles. That allows him to pretty much stick to the familiar story, albeit with one or two innovative tweaks.

A nice early touch is the interplay between the servants as they manage to find time to dance between decorating the tree and preparing for the party. The gathering itself is more a get-together for a few close friends but it’s neatly constructed with the dances for family and guests emerging naturally out of the scene. A long-standing feature of Ballet Theatre UK’s productions are their excellent costumes, and the gowns for the women are glorious.

Danced by the ever-excellent Miriam Konnerth, the adolescent Clara is given a lifelike mechanical doll (Katie Norman) by her father but, after dancing, it breaks down. No matter, a second gift comes in the shape of the familiar nutcracker soldier toy.

Konnerth’s dancing showed Clara’s joy and happiness, but so excited is she that she breaks it. Father saves the day with a fast repair. Still stood to the side, The Doll, as we soon find out, is not quite done and has a pivotal role in the coming night’s events.

Having crept back downstairs when she should be tucked up in bed, Clara’s adventure starts. The Doll returns to life and, Drosselmeyer-like, turns the nutcracker toy into a real soldier. It’s actually put down beside a table, from under which the elegant Alberto Diano then slides out. It’s not the smoothest of transformations and could do with a little more mystery or magic but it sort of works.

The lack of numbers shows up in the battle between the soldiers and mice, which is sometimes a little lightweight. There’s a nice surprise, however, as Clara declines to go in for any of the bashing the Rat King with a pointe shoe nonsense, instead taking a sword and clouting him over the head with it.

As with the Waltz of the Flowers in Act Two, ‘Snowflakes’ suffered a little for lack of space but has plenty of nice patterns as it made best use of the room available.

The second half is presided over by the Sugar Plum Fairy and her cavalier, Leah Allen and Marco Minella, effectively giving us two lead couples. When they and Konnerth and Diano dance together, it works remarkably well.

The divertissements were all rather well performed. The Arabian, a lovely pas de deux with just a hint of the East for the excellent and sinuous Sophie Piper and Robert Glick got the most applause.

For reasons I’ve never really understood, while choreographers have generally happily incorporated elements from the traditional dances of Spain, Russia and Arabia into the numbers, they’ve avoided doing so with the Chinese. So, three very loud cheers for Moore’s use of ‘floating dance fans’ (a regular fan with a fringe of airy material that does indeed appear to float gracefully) in a lovely small group number that evoked classical Chinese dance.

But best of all was the Grand pas de deux. Allen was beautifully serene, everything topped off with a set of fouettés that mixed singles and doubles throughout and that were right on the button. Alongside her, Minella jumped and turned with aplomb, landings always soft. He’s also an excellent and considerate partner. The couple looked remarkably happy in each other’s company, their phrasing and togetherness a total delight.

And so back home and Clara awakening from her dream. Or was it? Because still around her neck is the necklace given her by the Sugar Plum Fairy. Magic indeed.

Ballet Theatre UK’s 2025 autumn and Christmas production will be A Christmas Carol. Keep an eye on social media and www.ballettheatreuk.com for details.