High Points Youth Ballet - Review: The Nutcracker
Review of High Points Youth Ballet's annual Christmas production
On the 15th and 16th November 2024, High Points Youth Ballet, Northern Ireland’s only youth ballet company, held their annual performances of Pyotr Ilyich Tchaikovsky’s The Nutcracker.
One of the most popular ballets in the repertoire, The Nutcracker premièred on the 18th December [O.S. 6th December] 1892 at the Imperial Mariinsky Theatre in Saint Petersburg, with choreography by Lev Ivanov and possibly, Marius Petipa. Since the turn of the 20th century, the ballet has been staged worldwide in countless productions and is every ballet lover’s favourite Christmas treat. At the Theatre at the Mill in Newtownabbey, County Antrim, High Points Youth Ballet presented their production, staged by Artistic Director Jake Allison and répétiteur and choreographer Dr Anna Carapellotti.
The choreography is by Anna and Jake after Pasha Kambalov, Artistic Director of First State Ballet Theatre in Wilmington, Delaware, whose version is based on the 1934 version by Vasily Vainonen for the Kirov/Mariinsky Ballet. I attended the second performance on the 16th November and it was more than clear how hard everyone had worked to give a night for everyone to enjoy.
After Tchaikovsky’s delightful overture, the curtain opened on the first scene of Act 1, the Christmas party at the home of the Stahlbaum family, where all their family and friends gather. The most exciting of the guests is Herr Drosselmeyer (Jake Allison), the godfather to the Stahlbaum children, Marie (Jessica Birnie) and Fritz (Maisie Lucas). Gifts are given, games are played and there are dances, after which, Drosselmeyer puts on a show of dancing dolls - a Harlequin Doll (Ella Dunbar), a Ballerina Doll (Madison Crawford) and a Soldier Doll (Kristina Murphy). Afterwards, the children open their presents and Drosselmeyer gives Marie a Nutcracker doll, but Fritz snatches it from her and breaks it, devastating Marie. Luckily, Drosselmeyer mends the doll and places him in Marie’s care. The party soon ends and the guests depart, while the Stahlbaum household goes to bed. However, later in the night, Marie sneaks downstairs in search of the Nutcracker. When she finds him, she falls asleep in a chair and strange things begin to happen. The Christmas tree grows to become gigantic and an army of rats, led by the Rat King (Aoife Finnieston), appears. Suddenly, the Nutcracker (Liam Nugent) springs to life and leads the other dolls into battle. The rats are defeated and retreat.
The first scene was nicely staged. The Marche was a charming rendition danced by the children, led by Marie and Fritz, and ends with a game of Blind-Man’s-Bluff with a blindfolded Drosselmeyer. Jake gave an excellent performance as Drosselmeyer, proving to be a really good actor with a knack for comedy. The Dances of the Dolls were the highlight of the first scene and all three girls did a good job, but the one who stood out was Kristina as the Soldier Doll. The choreography for the Soldier Doll was perhaps the best of the three variations and Kristina not only danced very well with good technique, in regards to portraying a doll, she was the most convincing with fast, staccato movements, especially in the upper body. One could certainly imagine her as Swanhilda pretending to be the doll Coppélia.
The junior students of High Points Youth Ballet portrayed the children attending the party and the roles of Dr Stahlbaum and his wife were portrayed by students Liam Nugent and Ella Fitzpatrick. There was also the characters of two maids, performed by Zara Crawford and Annabelle French, who were in charge of preparing the parlour for the party and guarding the party cake, especially from Drosselmeyer. All four did a very nice job and the maids were certainly entertaining, showing plenty of potential as actors. Jessica Birnie, one of the junior students, danced Marie as a child and she’s definitely a very promising student as she danced very well and was overall a very charming Marie. Another feature worth mentioning is the Christmas Tree that was designed by Sharon Murphy, which featured references to the ballet and certain characteristics of Belfast, including the RMS Titanic and Aslan the Great Lion from The Chronicles of Narnia.
After the battle scene, it goes into the second scene where the stage blacks out and then blacks in again to reveal the transformed Marie (Amelia Larmour) and the Nutcracker-Prince (Renato De Leon) in a snowy forest. They dance the Journey pas de deux and a group of dancing snowflakes appears, after which, the Prince leads Marie to the magical Land of Sweets. The second scene was beautifully danced and well staged. Amelia is 16 years old, but she performed like a pro. Renato was a guest professional who had come from Berlin to be part of the show and he proved to be a beautiful dancer and a good partner to Amelia. They both gave a stellar performance of the Journey pas de deux and the Waltz of the Snowflakes was performed beautifully by the senior students of HPYB, providing a fitting close to the first act.
After the interval came Act 2, which was definitely worth waiting for. The curtain opens on a colourful stage setting, the décor and costumes of which were designed by the mothers of some of the students, Ffiona Dunbar, Katrina Larmour, Laura Murphy and Hilary Crawford. The opening featured the Dew Drop Fairy (Madison Crawford), dancing with angels. They welcome Marie and the Prince as they arrive and the Dew Drop Fairy summons dancers from all over the world - Spain, Arabia, China, Russia and France - and a group of polichnelle clowns, and a feast of dancing is held in Marie and the Prince’s honour. Marie and the Prince join in the celebration by dancing a grand de deux, after which, everyone joins in for a final dance. Suddenly, Marie (Jessica Birnie) wakes up back in her home, holding the Nutcracker and realises that her magical adventure was all a dream.
The second act is always the highlight of The Nutcracker and that of HPYB’s production was no exception. It was one that everyone in the audience enjoyed. While some of the choreography is based on Vainonen, most of it is original by Anna and Jake. The Divertissements were well put together, proving Anna and Jake’s abilities as choreographers.
First was the Spanish Dance, performed by Zara Crawford, Kristina Murphy and Ella Thompson. Next was the Arabian Dance, which proved to be the best of the national dances, presenting oriental-style positions finely entwined with classical style and was danced beautifully by Annabelle French, Tess French and Eabha-Rose Murphy. The Chinese Dance was performed by Ella Dunbar, Lucy Dunbar, Aoife Finneston and Leah McNally and the Russian Dance was performed by Aoife McAlinney, Amelia Moore, Emma Rice and Caila Rowntree. Marzipan was staged as a pas de trois and was performed by Sarina Bennett, Annabelle Brown and Liam Nugent.
The next number was the dance that generated the most excitement - the Dance of the Polichnelle Clowns, performed by the junior students, so much so that everyone clapped along and the students earned the biggest applause and cheers as they exited the stage. Afterwards came the Waltz of the Flowers, which seems to have been some sort of an homage to Balanchine, with some references to Serenade. It was performed by a small corps de ballet of ten flowers and two demi-soloists, led by the Dew Drop Fairy, danced beautifully by Madison Crawford.
The Grand Pas de deux was, of course, the highlight. Just like they did in the snowy forest scene in Act 1, Amelia and Renato shone in this piece. Amelia, once again, showed wonderful talent and professionalism and Renato gave quite the stellar performance as the Prince. As dance partners, they worked very well together, with Renato strongly partnering Amelia, especially in the difficult lifts. Each performed their variations very well and brought the pas de deux to an exciting end in the coda.
Overall, it was a pleasure to see HPYB in their annual Nutcracker again. Every year, they keep proving they have much to offer and what they gave on the nights of the 15th and 16th November was a delightful Christmas treat that surely helped spark the Christmas spirit in all who attended.
