Where to Find Holiday Spirit--In a Nutshell : Dance: San Diegans can choose from among six productions of the “Nutcracker,” but the Christmas perennial wasn’t always so popular.

The “Nutcracker” had an inauspicious premiere 99 years ago in St. Petersburg. “Banal,” wrote one who attended. “The audience nearly hissed.”

Things have changed. Over the past 30 years, the popularity of this Russian ballet classic has grown so extensively that it has become an annual holiday ritual for nearly every American ballet troupe, even some of the smallest.

Many dance companies bank on it, much as department stores do the holiday season, to carry them financially through the coming year. The ballet also serves as a recital piece for dancing schools, which can put tots in tutus and beginning students in a variety of roles that don’t require masterful movement.

This season, six San Diego-area ballet companies will present their “Nutcrackers,” from full-scale productions with live orchestras and guest stars for the technically demanding roles to intimate stagings that rely on humorous touches and ingenuity.

Like the miniature Hussar gizmos themselves, not all “Nutcrackers” look alike, despite the shared title. The differences aren’t merely a question of style, or costumes and scenery, but of tone, of interpretive license taken by artistic directors and stage designers.

A “Nutcracker” can be pure dreamlike prettiness or all fun-loving giddiness, to downplay the story’s darker implication, or it can highlight the psychological aspects, the many “magical” transformations of its characters, for example. Tchaikovsky’s evocative and richly exotic score makes different approaches workable, which accounts for much of its lasting appeal.

Each of the companies presenting here has its own distinctive presentation, but none strays far from the original.

The “Nutcracker” (“Casse Noisette”) was Tchaikovsky’s third ballet, commissioned by the Russian Imperial Opera in 1891, after his popular “The Sleeping Beauty.” The score was based on a French adaptation of E. T. A. Hoffman’s German tale, “Der Nussknacker und der Mauskonig” (“The Nutcracker and the Mouse King”).

The ballet begins at a Yuletide party but slips into a dream world of fanciful characters (among them “Incroyables and Marveilleuses and Biscuits,” according to the original program). It ends at the Palace of Sweets on Jam Mountain in Arabia, for a sequence of tasty divertissements, dance variations called “Chocolate,” “Coffee,” and “Marzipan,” among others.

Memorable roles in the first production, which have become traditional, include the mysterious toy maker Herr Drosselmeyer, young Clara, the monstrous Mouse King, and the ever-enchanting Sugar Plum Fairy and her dashing Cavalier, who dance one of the most famous pas de deux in the history of ballet.

For the “Dance of the Sugar Plum Fairy” (or the Bonbon Fairy, as some texts have it), Tchaikovsky wrote music for a new keyboard instrument, the celesta. Its tinkling tones were novel at the time. This dash of newness, along with a lightness and childlike esprit in the music overall, was exuberantly received (although written, surprisingly, during a phase of abject melancholy). But the ballet, when first presented in 1892, was not. Lev Ivanov’s choreography was considered inferior, and the Sugar Plum Fairy, deemed ugly, was replaced in the second performance. (Sugar plums were originally sweetmeats or candied fruit in the shape of a ball.)

Locally, San Diego’s California Ballet has been staging its large-scale “Nutcracker” for two decades. This year’s cast numbers 160. As Cavalier, guest dancers Mark Lanham returns to dance with the company and will be joined by newcomer Daren Savage, former principal dancer of the Milwaukee Ballet and Ohio’s Ballet Met.

Charismatic Patrick Nollet returns as the conjuring Drosselmeyer and will perform alongside his daughter, Liv Isaacs-Nollet, one of five dancers alternating in the role of Clara.

Matthew Bean, Denise Dabrowski, Karen Evans, and Sylvia Poolos also return in principal roles. (See box for schedules and ticket information for each production.)

Alan Russell will wear a large hoop skirt and play Mother Ginger in the West Coast Ballet Theatre’s production, opening Dec. 14 at La Jolla’s Parker Auditorium. “I’m a lot more comfortable on the basketball court than on stage, but I’m willing to subject myself to ridicule,” laughed Russell, mystery novelist and manager of La Jolla’s Sea Lodge.

Mother Ginger requires “a very tall person,” and at 6 feet, 7 inches, Russell says he meets the requirement. He was recommended for this “plum role” by basketball pal Peter Jensen (editor of San Diego “Home/Garden” magazine), who hid dancers under his skirt as Mother Ginger for the company last year.

“A real man can do these kinds of things,” Russell quipped. “I’ll go out in my skirt and do what needs to be done. I did a running of the bulls once--I can make a fool out of myself.”

Russell will alternate in the role with Jerry Coleman, San Diego Padre’s broadcaster.

The West Coast Ballet’s cast of 100 will include two principal dancers from New York’s American Ballet Theatre, Elizabeth Dunn as Sugar Plum Fairy and Lorin Johnson (a La Jolla native) as her Cavalier.

The American Ballet Ensemble is also bringing in professional dancers for the taxing pas de deux . Marina Nudgra and Anatoli Kucheruk, “Stars of the Bolshoi,” will be partners as the Sugar Plum Fairy and Cavalier. The American Ballet Ensemble’s production, its seventh annual, will travel to downtown San Diego and El Cajon. For the El Cajon performances, a chamber-size orchestra, conducted by Kerry Duse, formerly of the Royal Winnipeg Ballet, will accompany the dancers. The El Cajon Valley High School Chorus will sing. (George Balanchine’s revival of the ballet in 1954 included a 40-member boy’s choir.)

A premiere of the ballet is always a curiosity, sometimes revealing new twists on the story. The Black Mountain Dance Theatre will perform its first full-scale “Nutcracker” in Poway Dec. 20-22.

“The first year is the biggest job putting (a “Nutcracker”) together. My mind’s full of a thousand details--right now it’s exciting that the tree’s going up and down,” said Sylvia Zetler Palmer, artistic director.

Palmer’s production has a few innovations. Herr Drosselmeyer, for example, has irked the Queen of the Mice (a new character) who turned his nephew into a nutcracker. Only the love of a young woman can break the spell. The Mouse King, Palmer assured, “would scare anyone.” And the fight scene with the mice includes giant kitchen utensils.

The dancing is as traditional as it comes, however. Palmer is using three variations from the 1938 Sadler’s Wells Royal Ballet revival and plans to add more.

“We’re developing this as an ongoing project to be completely cohesive in three to four years. We have 16 ‘core’ dancers bearing the brunt of the production. We use professionals, but also have roles for children,” she said.

Choreographer Mieczyslaw Morawski, who trained at the Warsaw Ballet School and the Kirov Theatre, takes the role of Drosselmeyer, a clockmaker and inventor. Guest artists Muriel and Thomas Teague, who have performed as principals with companies in Vancouver, Oregon and Minnesota, will dance as Sugar Plum Fairy and Snow Prince, respectively.

Two other small ensembles round out the offerings. San Diego Ballet Ensemble will perform its third annual “Nutcracker” beginning Dec. 20 in Mandeville Auditorium and will feature guest dancer Chiharu Shibata of Japan as the Sugar Plum Fairy. And the New West Ballet Theater will buck normal scheduling and present its production, now in its 12th year, in early January at the Poway Center for the Performing Arts.

Finally, tonight at 10:30 p.m., KPBS Channel 15 will air the American Ballet Theatre’s made-for-television production, with Mikhail Baryshnikov. According to the station, this is the only “Nutcracker” programmed this month by the station.

‘Nutcracker’ Performances in San Diego County

DOWNTOWN

California Ballet (with orchestra) Civic Theatre, 202 C St., 560-6741

Dec. 13, 8 p.m.

Dec. 14, 2:30 and 8 p.m.

Dec. 15, 2:30 p.m.

Dec. 18, 8 p.m.

Dec. 19, 8 p.m.

Dec. 20, 2:30 and 8

Dec. 21, 2:30 and 8

Dec. 22, 2:30

Tickets $36, $29, $23.50, $17 and $11.50

American Ballet of San Diego, with Stars of the Bolshoi Ballet, San Diego City College Theatre,

14th Avenue and C Street, 792-1884

Dec. 13, 7:30 p.m.

Dec. 14, 2 p.m. and 7:30 p.m.

Dec. 15, 2 p.m.

Tickets $12, $8

LA JOLLA

West Coast Ballet Theatre Parker Auditorium, 750 Nautilus St., 456-0150

Dec. 14, 2 p.m. and 7 p.m.

Dec. 15, 2 p.m.

Dec. 21, 2 p.m. and 7 p.m.

Dec. 22, 2 p.m.

Tickets $12 general, $10 students and seniors

San Diego Ballet Ensemble, Mandeville Auditorium, UC San Diego. 294-7374

Dec. 20, 21, 22

Tickets $18, $14, $10

EL CAJON

American Ballet of San Diego, (with Stars of the Bolshoi and orchestra) Theatre East, 210 East Main St., 440-2277

Dec. 19, 7:30 p.m.

Dec. 20, 7:30 p.m.

Dec. 21, 2 p.m. and 7:30 p.m.

Dec. 22, 1 p.m. and 5 p.m.

Tickets $20, $15, reserved seats

OCEANSIDE

American Ballet of San Diego, Traux Theatre, 400 Rancho de Oro Drive, 792-1884

Dec. 7, 2 p.m. and 7:30 p.m.

Dec. 8, 2 p.m.

Tickets $12 general; $8 students, seniors, military, groups

POWAY

California Ballet, Poway Center for the Performing Arts, 15498 Espola Road, 560-6741

Dec. 6, 8 p.m.

Dec. 7, 2:30 p.m. and 8 p.m.

Dec. 8, 2:30 and 8

Tickets $28, $23, $17

Black Mountain Dance Theatre, Poway Center for the Performing Arts, 15498 Espola Road Poway, 674-1006

Dec. 20, 8 p.m.

Dec. 21, 2 p.m. and 8 p.m.

Dec. 22, 2 p.m. and 7 p.m.

Tickets $20, $15

New West Ballet, Poway Center for the Performing Arts, 15498 Espola Road Poway, 741-3838

Jan. 4, 2 p.m. and 7 p.m.

Jan. 5, 2 p.m. and 7 p.m.

Tickets $14.50, $10.50