The Moscow Ballet's Great Russian Nutcracker

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I have seen the ballet of The Nutcracker every year since 2011. This year Ballet West was returning to the Kennedy Center to perform the famous ballet. While I love their version (I saw it in 2014), I wanted to mix is up and see another company's performance of The Nutcracker. When I realized that the Moscow Ballet would be performing at the Strathmore, less than 20 minutes from where I live, I immediately bought tickets.


I think a big part of what the Moscow Ballet focuses on is youth engagement. I am under the impression that they include young dancers from the different cities where they perform, so there were TONS of children in this version. Snow sprites, mice, snowflakes...all little girls. Even the children as party guests were all girls, some were just dressed as boys. Teenage dancers were also included, particularly in the cultural variations; I actually think this detracted from those dances, personally. I understand the importance of including youth in supporting the arts, but if I wanted to see children dance, I wouldn't pay nearly $100 for it.

There were other bits about this particular version of which I was not a fan. First of all, Clara (whom they called "Masha" and Uncle Drosselmeyer were the wrong ages: she looks 16 instead of like a little girl, and he wasn't much older than her. So it was weird seeing her in a nightgown getting a present from a young man who could be her brother (instead of an old man with an eye-patch, which is the usual). There also wasn't a "family feel" at the party; the adults and children felt very separate (plus the women weren't wearing ballet shoes, which threw me off). The growing Christmas tree was also a letdown for me: it was made of fabric, and until it grew, the extra was just a puddle of cloth on stage. I thought it was pretty obvious, so the tree lost its illusion.

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The robotic dolls who dance at the party (performed by Kostyantin Vinovoy and Iryna Protsenko) were not fabulous, either. I have seen dancers who actually move just like machines, and these two were lacking in that department. I just wasn't buying it, and quite frankly, Vinovoy looks creepy AF.

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 And Moor dolls randomly showed up. They're the same dancers from the Arabian Coffee dance (more about that below), so it seemed weird that they were on stage for just a hot second in the first act. They couldn't wait?

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Also, at the end of Act I, we are usually transported to a beautiful snow forest, but here it snowed in the house, and Clara/Masha and her prince were dancing rather than a snow queen and HER prince. But Santa Claus and a snow maiden with little kids made an appearance. What?


I didn't care for the company's interpretation of the rats, either. I've seen performances where the rats are rolly-polly and funny, which I much more prefer. These looked like demon rats with skin that had been burnt in the fires of hell. Ew. (Of course I couldn't find a good photo for the blog. Probably because they realize how ugly the rats are, too.) The mice children weren't much better, and the kids they got for this performance were especially bad, coming onto the stage late and bumping into each other.

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The highlight for me was definitely the Arabian Coffee dance. This is always my favorite part, but of course different companies have their own versions. Some have only one dancer, some have several, some are a pas de deux, others are multiple women... But the Moscow Ballet's version is THE best, hands down. I had seen it years ago on YouTube, and I was just as in love with it in person! I got to see Sergey Chumakov and Elena Petrichenko perform it in the flesh! Even though they are some of the oldest dancers in the company (they joined in 1994), their physiques are astounding and they were by far the best dancers!

Just watch the acrobatic moves they perform. They are AMAZING!

The Moscow Ballet adds their own flair to The Nutcracker with their "dove of peace" segment, also performed by Chumakov and Petrichenko. The lifts might even be more impressive because he's doing them with just one free arm!

Clara/Masha played the role of the Sugarplum Fairy, which I thought was strange. And there was no Mother Ginger character (probably because the show already included so many children). They did add animal nesting dolls for several of the cultural dances, like a bull for the Spanish Chocolate dance and a bear for the Russian dance; they were funny, but mostly hung out on stage rather than actually dance.

So, not my favorite version. But I can watch that Arabian Coffee dance on repeat for eternity!