Skipping your Christmas vacation this year? Why not take a "staycation" to New York 100 years ago -- with side trips to Japan and Russia -- while you watch the Minnesota Ballet's new, bigger-than-ever production of "The Nutcracker" next weekend.
Robert Gardner, Minnesota Ballet's artistic director, said the new show offers the perfect balance of new and old for loyal fans of the annual holiday-season ballet.
"Each version changes," said Gardner, noting that the previous production had been running for 11 years (and followed at least two other versions of the popular ballet in the Twin Ports). "It's still based on E.T.A. Hoffmann's story -- which is fairly gruesome -- but this one has different settings, some different characters. And Allen [Fields, the ballet's artistic director emeritus] has added a little darkness back."
Gardner said the first act of the new production is "very much a drama," with dancing, and elaborate settings, including an opulent New York apartment as well as Central Park, plus detailed Edwardian-era costumes.
"All the characters you're introduced to in the beginning, wearing their Edwardian dress, morph in our heroine's dream into these fantasy creatures," Gardner said. "Some characters at the party scene, who weren't so pleasant, actually turn into rats. ... Her dream is actually much more based in the reality of what's gone on at the party."
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Performances begin at 7 p.m. Friday and Saturday and at 3 p.m. Sunday, Dec. 11-13, at the DECC. Tickets are $20 to 42 for adults, $15 to 32 for students, and $13 to 27 for children; purchase at the DECC or any Ticketmaster outlet. For more information, visit www.minnesotaballet.org; to arrange for special-rate tickets for groups as small as ten, call the Ballet, (218) 529-3742.
