<>                      OFF THE MAT,  NUTCRACKER BACK ON HIS FEET
                    As Oakland Ballet Valiantly Makes Another Comeback 
                                              By Paul Hertelendy 
        artssf.com, the independent observer of San Francisco Bay Area music and dance 
                                                                 Week of Dec. 26-Jan. 3, 2010
                                                                  Vol. 13, No. 45
            OAKLAND---The Oakland Ballet, which has been counted out more often than a middle-aged  boxer, has returned, defying all odds, seemingly with more lives than the proverbial cat.
            The 44-year-old company was counted out when, with funds depleted and warehouses half-empty, its founding Artistic Director Ronn Guidi resigned once again in 2009 at age 73.
            But wait! However improbable it seems, the deathless troupe has come galloping and pirouetting back this month at the Paramount Theater, mounting “Nutcracker” with live orchestra, cheered on by the fans happy to overlook some flaws and a paucity of magic and true sparkle.
            We beggars can’t be choosers. Living almost in the shadow of the mighty San Francisco Ballet, the Oakland counterpart has long faced a precarious existence,  maintained more by true grit than exemplary  performance.
            The Lazarus-like revival was brought about by Guidi’s latest successor, the veteran Londoner Graham Lustig, 55, who puts greater store by classical ballet (and less by variants) than others. Lustig had previously run the American Repertory Theater in New Jersey, where his “Nutcracker” (and presumably  this Zack Brown production)  had debuted a decade earlier. Unlike the other dozen or so Christmas “Nutcrackers” around the S.F. Bay Area, this one is neither Russian nor German, but rather set in the Vienna of circa 1910, with forward-looking costumes removing a lot of vintage frills.
            Assembling it with adult (even veteran) performers was a mighty task, rendered tough by the opening-night nervousness that hit almost the whole cast on Dec. 23. Among the few escaping that fate were the Nutcracker Prince Connolly Strombeck, and particularly the young, shining  figure of Marie (Clara), Steph Salts, playing expanded roles in this version. They were a confident, young boy-girl pair, and Salts provided the coolest and prettiest performance all night until fatigue came on stage.
            But there’s a lot more that people normally expect---like a secure and professional Grand Pas de Deux, which the uneasy pair of Rachel Speidel Little and Jekyns Pelaez struggled with, like Drosselmeyer’s sleight-of-hand magic, and like some robust, wondrous growth of the wondrous Christmas tree. However sincere,  Little’s Sugar Plum Fairy showed more effort than effect. All menace, including Drosselmeyer’s and the Mouse King’s, has been sanitized in this go-round. The invading mice were benign dancing figures, and the Battle with the Mice was mere comedy and young charm.
            I can live without the magic. But I really yearn for more sparkle, which requires something beyond snowfall, snowballs thrown, dancing candys, and a solo butterfly. At least there was some irresistible cuteness, with the tiny sextet of preschool dancers in the “Mother Goose” variation.
            The novelty in this production, even more than the birch trees in the Snows, is the balloon ride for Marie and the Nutcracker, dropping down out of the skies.
            A small orchestra played the score, effectively conducted by Michael Morgan, though it needed more forces to cover the large theater.
            OAKLAND’S MAÑANA---The OB Executive Director Ann Singer has announced a spring repertory program by the OB May 19-21, 2011, with a new work by Sonya Delwaide-Nichols, at the intimate Laney College Theater.
            “Nutcracker” Ballet, music of Tchaikovsky, Oakland Ballet with choreographer Graham Lustig. Paramount Theater, Oakland. Concluding Dec. 26. For info: (866) 711-6037, or go online. 

        ©Paul Hertelendy 2010
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           Paul Hertelendy has been covering the dance and modern-music scene in the San Francisco Bay Area with relish -- and a certain amount of salsa -- for years.
    These critiques appearing weekly (or sometimes semi-weekly, but never weakly) will focus on dance and new musical creativity in performance, with forays into books (by authors of the region), theater and recordings by local artists as well.
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