This flirtatiouness looked splendid in her variation (the famous bit with the celesta), but I would have liked to see her get more in touch with her inner aristocrat for the grand pas de deux with Federico Bonelli: imperial Petipa demands imperious dancing. Lauren Cuthbertson ( pictured left) was all smiles and side-eyes as the Sugar Plum Fairy. Their little pas de deux at the end of Act I is charming and if last night it didn't quite scale the heights of the perfect romance they delivered last year, it will doubtless get there as the dancers settle into the run. He and Hayward amplify one another's delight when dancing together, which is another reason I wouldn't mind seeing them get to do slightly more than rhubarb to one another in Act II. When he's killing it (as he does, easily) in the challenging jumps of the Russian dance, he's not acting the Nutcracker, but simply beaming out the joy of dance in megawatts straight to the back of the amphitheatre. When Hayward extends an arm or a leg, even her back and neck, she seems to draw a line longer than you thought possible, and to hold it a moment longer than you expected: she moves like thrown silk, and it's impossible to tire of watching her do it.Ĭampbell's appeal is more quotidian, but no less powerful: he's a one-man boy band whose frank, direct smile slays them (or at least me) in the aisles. Those with more technical knowledge will marvel in addition at her speed, her pliability, her musicality, and that tremendous way she has of filling space. The child-sized Hayward ( pictured right) is as fresh and clean as a snowdrop, qualities - along with her radiant smile - that even the most dance-illiterate of audience memebers will be seduced by. I suppose it's to be expected in this age of tiger moms and helicopter parents that the kids who are ostensibly the main characters spend most of the show being pushed around by a bossy adult, but wouldn't it be more magical for everyone if we could believe that the Land of Ice and Snow or the Kingdom of the Sweets were the fruits of Clara's imagination, rather than her godfather's? This is a ballet supremely suitable for children in every regard - length, story, visual inventiveness, extreme unscariness - and one of the mainstays of art for children is the belief that there are worlds children can only access on their own.ĭial down Drosselmeyer, just a bit, and Clara and the Nutcracker could shine more, which with Francesca Hayward and Alexander Campbell in the roles would be a very good thing - these two, now both Principals, are the headline cast for good reason. Gary Avis is an endearing magician-uncle to be sure, but does he really have to press the "start" button on every single dance number in Act II? His constant interference detracts from the magic of the otherworlds Clara and her Nutcracker prince voyage to. I say almost, because I began to feel, on last night's viewing, that the role of Drosselmeyer - whom Wright keeps on stage almost constantly to provide continuity - has got out of hand. It helps that Wright's Nutcracker is a classic of the genre, almost perfect in every way.
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