Review: Sacramento Ballet’s The Nutcracker

For three decades, the Sacramento Ballet’s performance of Ron Cunningham’s The Nutcracker has been an integral part of Sacramento’s Christmas celebration. The glamorous costuming, the impressive set with a Christmas tree that grows and the “snow” that falls in the ethereal Snowflake Forest never cease to delight.

Despite its age, The Nutcracker continues to satisfy. And Cunningham’s casting of kids—about 500 each year—introduces young ones to the beauty and discipline of the dance.

The dancers themselves find new challenges each year through their casting in featured roles. The company is blessed with an almost surfeit of talent. So strong is the troupe that such key roles as the Snow Queen and King have four sets of dancers that perform at different shows; there are five ballerinas to dance “The Rose in the Waltz of the Flowers;” and the “Sugar Plum Fairy and Her Cavalier” pairing has 10 dancers in various combinations in the grand pas de deux before the finale. Sunday’s matinee will feature all 10 dancers sharing the roles.

Some of the dancers are performing with injuries, including Richard Porter, who nevertheless shone as the Sugar Plum Fairy’s Cavalier at the first performance with live accompaniment. Some shows had recorded music, but all remaining shows will be accompanied by the Sacramento Philharmonic Orchestra.