The Nutcracker review: captures the spirit of the season admirably

The Nutcracker ★★★ 
Gaiety Theatre, Dublin

This year Ballet Ireland's The Nutcracker gathers enough momentum to potentially make it an annual event. It ticks all the necessary boxes: a growing Christmas tree, overgrown mice, falling snow, and a candy-coated Kingdom of Sweets.

The dancers also gel as a group, so despite Ballet Ireland’s rotating line-up as a part-time company, the performers who return each year create a welcome familiarity for audiences while adding an institutional memory. That helps deepen the interpretation of their roles.

Not that The Nutcracker as a ballet requires much dramatic depth, but its sense of ritual has captivated audiences elsewhere since the mid-20th century, well after the ballet premiered in Russia in 1892. In North America, no matter how big or small the city, if there is a ballet director with a vision, there is most likely a Nutcracker around Christmas time. That sense of seasonal repetition here has felt more experimental, but with a solid production now in place, some appeal lies in watching Ballet Ireland's homegrown production expand and develop.

The strengths of this Nutcracker include a pleasant party scene with children primed and ready to step into more advanced roles, a snow scene that works admirably with some of the most buoyant music in the Tchaikovsky score and a cast of highly capable dancers who move as though they are enjoying the moment yet still competing with each other for the audience's attention.

That sense of competition jettisons the level of dancing, particularly from Ryoko Yagyu as Clara. Every once in a while she hits an arabesque or masters a sequence of turns that reveal just how much she can accomplish, and in true Nutcracker fashion, serves as an inspiration for the rest of the cast who seem to be working hard to keep up with her. The act-II divertissements move swiftly and entertain.

Sometimes the choreography appears thin, which is accentuated by the taped music and overly drawn out pantomimed sections – which can be all too common in many Nutcrackers.

But the shortcomings in this version are balanced out by a the dancers' commitment to unleashing that little bit of magic that lures us into this tradition, which is the true spirit of Nutcrackers everywhere.

- The Nutcracker is at the Gaiety, Dublin until November 19th, and then continues its tour nationwide. For more, see balletireland.ie