Scottish Ballet's Nutcracker at Glasgow’s Theatre Royal


In an eyeball-to-eyeball duet, contemporary dancer Diana Loosmore, powerfully turning with sumptuous use of back, confronts the light-footed effortlessly-leaping Royal Ballet trained Adam Blyde.

This is Scottish Ballet’s Nutcracker, Artistic Director Ashley Page’s 2003 production – that was in his opinion the making of the newly invigorated company. A full-length Nutcracker is a big undertaking for any small company, and the thirty-seven dancers of Scottish Ballet have to tackle four or five roles each. It brings all the dancers together – and highlights the diversity of their style.

Blyde is dancing Fritz at Glasgow's Theatre Royal. He is dressed as the nutcracker doll in an entertainment for his sister (Marie in this production, not Clara) and the rest of the Stahlbaum family when he is attacked by the Queen of the Mice, Dame Mouserink – Loosmore complete with grotesque pink ears and tail – who bears a strong resemblance to the children’s governess. Page uses the contemporary dance vocabulary for the wicked element of the tale – barefooted bad snowflakes, danced with breathtaking changes of direction by Patricia Hines and Diana Loosmore again, dart in and out of the pointe-shoed good snowflakes. Page clearly enjoys the contemporary twist and Loosmore’s Dame Mouserink dominates the stage in a Nutcracker that is, quite simply, brilliantly danced by the entire company.

Unlike Peter Darrell’s 1973 production for Scottish Ballet, Page’s isn’t a Nutcracker of falling snow and onstage choir boys. It’s upfront diversity – the battle of good and evil in an expressionist Weimar German world created by Page and his designer, Antony McDonald – and it excites. There are delicate moments too, as with the troubled feelings of the clockmaker Herr Drosselmeyer towards his goddaughter Marie. Unfortunately his part, danced by Jarkko Lehmus, is not as choreographically rewarding as Dame Mouserink’s – even when danced by ballet star Irek Mukhamedov who shares the role (and Andy Warhol wig). As a result, we miss a real choreographic clash between the two.

While Page leads us into a convincing fairytale world that is both mysterious and exciting, the development of his stylistic fusion climaxes not with the Grand pas de deux but the excellently choreographed and danced Waltz of the Flowers, mixing bold classical lines with black-stockinged quirkiness. Resorting to the original Ivanov choreography – danced to perfection by Erik Cavallari and the exquisite Monica Zamora – the Grand pas fails to bring the originality of this adventure to a fulfilling conclusion. Unconstrained by the formal presentation of Ivanov’s choreography – moments, however, from the final curtain – we at last see Marie and the transformed Nutcracker Prince dance as if really in love.



Michael Scott, Dance Expression Magazine February 2005