Three and a half stars

Cincinnati Ballet with
the Russian Ballet Academy;
Murat; Dec.13-16

This sprightly, well-danced, well-produced version sticks close to the original story by E.T.A. Hoffmann, with the toymaker/family friend Herr Drosslmeier at the center of events at the party and in the dream world where Marie and The Nutcracker are the lead dancers and main characters. Thus, there’s no Snow Queen or King, Angels or Pages, no Dew Drop Fairy or Sugar Plum Fairy. Instead, on opening night, there was powerful dancing and warm-hearted partnering by Adiarys Almeida as Marie and Cervilio Miguel Amadot as The Nutcracker, and the company as a whole at the party, kingdom of snow and kingdom of sweets. Christopher Kent Weisler was benignly comedic rather than darkly sinister as Drosslmeier. Nick Van Almelo as Fritz and 36 other students from the Russian Ballet Academy danced seamlessly with regular members of the Cincinnati Ballet, acquitting themselves well to the pleasant choreography by Val Caniparoli. The costuming is lovely, the setting boldly configured and the live orchestra with a roster of Indianapolis-based players delivered Tchaikovsky’s music with authority. One quibble was the absence of a live choir. A synthesizer just doesn’t jibe when we have an abundance of youth choirs to draw from. A full house applauded the use of Indianapolis Foundation funds for a neighboring city’s company on tour with yet another version of The Nutcracker.