The Battalion
Lifestyles Editor Lisa Ann Robertson 845-3313
Bolshoi creates magic in Christmas dream
Driver Kevin Plunkett chauffeurs Charles Dillingham and Yuri Grigorovich (center) away from Rudder
Auditorium after the Bolshoi Ballet-Grigorovich Company made its world premiere Friday night. Grigoro
vich is the artistic director of the company that bears his name. Dillingham is president and chief exec
utive officer of the Entertainment Corporation, USA, the company that represents and produces the Bol
shoi Ballet in the United States.
first saw “The Nutcracker” when
I was in the fourth grade.
It was right after we discussed it in music class;
the teacher spent two days showing slides of the
different instruments and what sounds they made. I
thought that the ballet was magic and that one day I
could be the Sugar Plum Fairy.
The Bolshoi Ballet-Grigorovich Company per
forms a version of “The Nutcracker” that proves
ballet is still magical, even without a fairy prin
cess.
At their world premiere in Rudder Auditorium
Friday night, the company’s dancers tempted more
than 2,300 spectators into a Christmas dream com
plete with toy soldiers and dancing dolls.
The dream, as the Bolshoi presents it, is a love
story between a little girl Marie and the Nutcracker
Prince. Marie’s parents host a Christmas party for
family and friends. One friend, Drosselmeyer, is
the mysterious godfather to Marie and her brother.
Drosselmeyer fascinates everyone at the party
with his gift of a toy nutcracker and other dolls that
dance on their own. Marie’s brother accidently
breaks the doll, but Drosselmeyer comforts her and
promises to fix it.
After the guests leave, Marie glides down the
stairs to sit with the broken nutcracker. A band of
mice led by the Mouse King attacks the gifts; the
Nutcracker and his troop of soldiers fend them off
only with Marie’s intervention.
To show his gratitude, the Nutcracker, who has
become a live prince, takes her to a fairy land.
Amidst the fairies and dolls, the two fall in love.
I won’t give away the Bolshoi ending, but 13
years after I first saw “The Nutcracker,” the danc
ers’ tenderness overwhelmed me. Their tenderness
escaped the stage and seeped into the audience,
who later gave the company a 10 minute standing
ovation.
Yuri Grigorovich, artistic director of the com
pany and its namesake, debuted his 60 dancers at
Texas A&M less than two months after he had
chosen A&M for the premiere site. The dancers,
however, showed no signs of being ill-prepared.
Oksana Konobeyeva personified the innocence
of Marie and her love for the prince danced by
Dmitry Tuboltsev. Both performed not as dancers
in character roles but as the character's themselves:
She skipped and clapped when Drosselmeyer,
Oleg Dedogriuk, handed her the nutcracker. She
winced and sobbed when her brother broke it.
Later, in the land of the fairies, she celebrated her
love with twirls and tender glances.
Tuboltsev charged to life after Marie chased the
Mouse King away. He leapt across the stage to
profess his love. Together they delighted in the
dances of the Spanish, Indian, Chinese, Russian
and French dolls who offered their thanks to Marie
for stopping the mice.
While Konobeyeva and Tuboltsev danced their
love on stage, the supporting cast kept the audi
ence entranced with their acrobatics and grace.
Known for their athleticism, certain Bolshoi danc
ers stood out. Elena Gushchina as the witch, Ta
tiana Ledovskikh as the Spanish maiden, Pavel
Eliseyev as the Chinese doll, Andrei Shishkin as
the Russian peasant and Tatiana Kutina and Vitaly
Malko as the French dolls each embodied techni
cally precise grace.
And Maria Mosina captured the audience’s ad
miration as the mechanical Nutcracker Doll. She
stole the ovation when flowers were presented to
the soloist female dancers in the company. There
appeared to be an extra bouquet until the presenter
gave the flowers-to the petite dancer, delighting the
audience.
Also delighting the audience was the perfor
mance by the Brazos Valley Symphony Orchestra.
Soviet conductor Alexander Lavrenyuk ignited the
orchestra’s playing with a life beyond the pit. The
dancers used the music to accentuate their
movements and their expressions. Listening to the
BVSO, I could anticipate the until-now-hidden nu
ances of the ballet before seeing them.
Opening night was not without some distrac
tions, the most noticeable coming in the second act
when a fairy collapsed on stage.
Elena Kurilko left the ground with the other
dancers but ended in a heap on the floor. She
clutched her leg and waited for an opportunity for
her partner to help her off stage. The ballet contin
ued as the Bolshoi maintained its professionalism.
Kurilko’s partner scooped her up carefully as soon
as he could make a graceful exit from an ungrace
ful injury. She will undergo more tests today; cast
officials say it appears she suffered a knee injury.
Far less serious distractions included a stage
hand that could be seen during a scene change and
some feedback from the microphone in the orches
tra pit.
The kinks were easily overcome, and the rest of
the premiere weekend performances, like the one
on opening night, hypnotized the audiences.
“The Nutcracker” is a magical ballet. The Bol
shoi Ballet-Grigorovich Company’s version sur
passes magical.
Story by LISA ANN ROBERTSON Photo by JA YJANNER
Texas A&M University
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