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Classic Dance Academy

On most years World Dance Reviews' (WDR) Front Range Colorado reviewer takes December off, given that only Nutcracker's are presented - and what can you say about yet another Nutcracker. But, in 2010 The New York Time's Alistair McCauley coped with that same-old-same-old attitude by taking a tour around the USA to review a number of those concerts. So we decided maybe we could do a similar WDR tour of just Front Range Colorado. In fact we will never be able to get to all the Front Range Nutcrackers. There are way too many even in that restricted area. And some - like Boulder Ballet's always great production - are over. But more than enough remain. So here is our first.

The Nutcracker Ballet history goes back to 1892, when the Russian Government funded production of a ballet called "Shchelkunchik" based on a fairy tale by E.T.A. Hoffmann - "The Nutcracker and the Mouse King." Tchaikovsky wrote the music and Ivanov, Petipa, and others provided the libretto/ballet. Later - probably well into the 20th Century - the West made the ballet a Christmas production - mostly for children - and what is now seen as the "break through" choreography is that done by Balanchine in 1954. Now any number of productions exist based in that history, and are settled mostly in Balanchine's choreography. They include "traditional versions, and then vary from Mark Morris' "The Hard Nut," where all the flowers are men en pointe, to at least one where the rats win the war (performed as "The Ratcracker" by Boulder's Frequent Flyer Productions). We will stick to those closest to Balanchine's ideas.