`Nutcracker' Sparkles With Super Mix Of Music, Costumes And Dance

Ballet review

Pacific Northwest Ballet and Orchestra in "Nutcracker" (Tchaikovsky/Stowell), last Friday through Dec. 29, Opera House ($10-$56; 292-ARTS). -------------------------------------------------------------------

Little girls in velvet dresses, white sox and Mary Janes tossed their curls and reached for another diminutive Dove bar in a basket held by a costumed server.

Parents in their night-out best, some with dresses to match the girls', beamed and chatted, gathered to watch the carolers or jugglers and sipped champagne.

These scenes in the Opera House lobby before curtain and during intermission at an Opening Night party had their counterparts in the party scene onstage last night, as Pacific Northwest Ballet opened a 40-performance run of "Nutcracker."

Super effort

Buoyed by the music of Tchaikovsky, enhanced by costumes and sets by world-famous illustrator Maurice Sendak, the dancers gave an unusually bright and sparkling performance.

Setting the tone were the savvy and energetic PNB students Amanda Ose as the young Clara (the ballet's heroine, who dreams her Nutcracker toy comes to life), and Eric Holzworth as her brother Fritz, the pest of the party.

The other children in the first act were charming, as well, and beautifully rehearsed.

Angela Sterling danced the Ballerina Doll with easy panache, and Yu Xin was convincingly menacing as Sword-Dancer Doll.

Compliments to the corps, in the Snow scene; they just get better each year.

In that scene, the adult Clara and her Nutcracker/Prince first appear, fresh with the joy of discovery. Louise Nadeau looked somewhat nervous throughout the evening, but her crystalline technique and sunny smile, along with Brent Davi's masterly partnering, carried her through. Once she settles into the role, few will touch her for genuine warmth or delicate brilliance.

The second act divertissements were swift and spellbinding. The redoubtable Sterling Kekoa, who played the mysterious Uncle Drosselmeier in the first act, here cracked the whip as the Pasha, lording it over a motley crew of slaves, moors, dervishes and flowers.

Ariana Lallone of the smoldering glances and legs to infinity, danced Peacock with luscious abandon.

Timothy Lynch danced Chinese Tiger, surrounded by bounding Chinese girls, to great comic effect.

Uko Gorter, Yu Xin and particularly Anthony Jones, spun, lept and whirled magnificently as dervishes.

Patricia Barker made her appearance as Rose in the memorable "Waltz of the Flowers." Here was a transformed Barker - for once wearing bright color, not white or pastels, with a bold, daring persona to match.

While Barker's performance may have had a miscalculation or two, those were overlooked for the way she threw herself into this bravura role: double fouettes (whipping turns), rapid bourree turns (traveling pirouettes), extravagant leaps. She's pushing herself for speed, and it only adds to her already substantial appeal, because you know she will get there.

Kudos for orchestra

Adding much grace to the show last night was the PNB Orchestra, conducted by Stewart Kershaw, and the solo singers, Emily Lunde and Susan Erickson.

Credit, too, to the stagehands, who handled the set changes and effects so smoothly.

The "fur crazies," as one person calls theme - persons protesting the wearing of animal furs - cast a shadow over the otherwise happy scene by screaming epithets at fur-wearing audience members who entered the Opera House last night. It would seem a well-reasoned, simple statement delivered with kindness might have more effect, be more in keeping with the elegance of the occasion, if protest they must.