The Nutcracker

Let me Pre phase my review that I am by no means an expert on ballet and what not. I mean going into this evening my ballet lingo and knowledge stops at I know that the shoes they use are called «points» and for some odd reason I know what a Fouetté’ is.
That said I heard quite a few good things about this show in particular and just had to go see it, additionally a very close friend of mine is the stage manager here as well. I came on the 11^th to see it on opening night, and watching it, I was very impressed by the stage design, I’m told that some of the piece are 30 years old as well, but I have to say sitting 9 rows dead center and being new to this production I never would have known that.
Additionally while I may not know ballet very well, as my parents knew that at my young age I didn’t have the potential to really develop good balance and grace, rather when it came to dancing I looked like a guy with two left feet but one leg was shorter then the other one so I would just go in really tight circles… Despite my lack of an ability to dance, it doesn’t take a Mikhail Baryshnikov (The very last drop of any ballet knowledge I have.) to know when someone did something that takes amazing skill, grace and strength. The nutcracker doing those spins and turns at the end of act 1 in snowflakes was absolutely amazing. Also near the end of act 2 with a large group of the ballet corps doing that Massive dance in the Russian ballroom. It was beautiful.
I must say that it was really cute that the San Jose ballet Incorporated the little children of their school into the play as well. They were brought into play as the mouse army, and when they came out in their little mouse outfits you could hear all the swoons and awes. It was really cute. I have to say though the music under the direction of the conductor Dwight Oltman did an amazing job. The music combined with the wonderful acoustics of the venue was the thing that was able to convey emotion and acted as an effective narrative in this otherwise silent performance. And I have to say I did not expect pyrotechnics of this level. It did make me jump a bit, because I underestimated the expected sound and strength.
It made for a fun evening and the show is running from now until the 28^th.
BTW,
I kinda wish at least once the mice be able to win. Just once. Maybe next year.