Saturday December 17th at 8 p.m. I took my seat (with a perfect view of the stage I might add!) at the Power Center, anticipating the event I have been most looking forward to this month, the Ann Arbor Ballet Theatre’s production of The Nutcracker Ballet.
The Ann Arbor Ballet Theatre (AABT) is a local company comprised of dancers of all ages from Ann Arbor and surrounding cities, offering opportunities to musicians and actors as well to perform in integrated shows with the company. The company resides with the CAS Ballet Theatre School on Church Street. I was pleasantly surprised at the varying ages and levels of experience represented in the show. There were quite a few young children in the show, which was unique from what you would likely see in a professional production of the ballet, but it was refreshingly cute in this performance, especially for a holiday show.
All of the dancers were very good, but there were a few who really stood out. Felice Le immediately impressed me in the very first act, where she danced the part of one of the maids preparing the home for the holiday party. Later in the show her superior technical and artistic abilities were more properly showcased as she played the part of the Snow Queen in The Land of Snow and Coffee in The Kingdom of Sweets. Her movements were technically strong, but she also maintained a stable and serene upper body despite all of the difficult steps, expressing each character uniquely through her facial expressions, and the fluidity of her upper body movements. I also was very impressed with Clara, the main character of the ballet, danced by Sarah Polk. Though her technical abilities were hidden during the first act, as most of the full dance pieces were performed at the end of the show with the beginning containing more acting than dancing, when her time came to take the stage as a dancer she was beautiful. She exhibited beautiful extension and weightless leaps. I really enjoyed watching her dance. Her partner, Corey Davis, was also a very impressive dancer, with really beautiful extension and lines, especially for a male dancer. However, he wasn’t the strongest partner on some of the lifts, and there were a few moments where the movements seemed a bit unstable. The other male dancers were better partners, with more upper body strength to perform stronger lifts and provide more physical support, however the other male dancers had poorer technique and failed to impress me, with the exception of Jim Benjey who played the Cavalier in The Kingdom of Sweets.
Aside from the beautiful dancing itself, the production was really well done. The sets were absolutely beautiful for each scene, my favorite being The Land of Snow, when the stage was somewhat dimly lit with a blue-ish hue, and powdery snow flakes fell onto the stage throughout the piece, littering the floor with piles of white fluff that the dancers kicked up with their pointe shoes as they leapt and turned across the stage in their pure white tutus and skirts. It was really lovely. The costumes were also exquisite. From the first scene to the very last every single costume choice appeared to be very well-made and beautifully chosen for the role, throughout the many characters and costume changes in the performance.
AABT’s production of The Nutcracker was such a holiday treat. I love that one of the prominent Christmas traditions is a ballet! I loved watching the dancers perform–it was really a beautiful show. If you missed it this year, I would encourage you to go to their performance next year if you’re in town. If not, go see another ballet company’s performance of The Nutcracker–I’m certainly going to make seeing The Nutcracker a holiday tradition from this year forward!
I hope you all have a very Merry Christmas! 🙂 Enjoy the holiday break!
*Note: The photos displayed here are unfortunately not of this year’s performance, as there was no photography allowed during the performance this year. However these images are from previous years’ performances of the AABT’s Nutcracker. Hopefully recent photos from this year will be posted online at some point for those who are interested in seeing what they missed!
