Kirov Ballet’s ‘Nutcracker’ Set for Orange County

The Kirov Ballet will bring its “Nutcracker” ballet to North America for the first time later this year, with the U.S. premiere scheduled for Dec. 1-6 at the Orange County Performing Arts Center.

The seven-performance engagement at the center will open a tour that will include stops in Canada and Mexico as well as in the United States. It represents the centennial anniversary of the perennial holiday ballet, which was created for the famed Russian company.

The production coming to Orange County was first staged in 1934 by Vasily Vainonen, after the Lev Ivanov original danced in 1892 at the Maryinsky Theatre, St. Petersburg, home of the Kirov.

Casting will be announced.

The Kirov was at the center and at the Shrine Auditorium in Los Angeles in May. The troupe concludes a stint in Washington today, and returns to Southern California this weekend for performances of “La Bayadere” in San Diego.

Three other “Nutcracker” productions have been presented at the center since it opened in 1986. American Ballet Theatre brought Mikhail Baryshnikov’s version in 1986, and announced the premiere of a new production to take place there in 1991.

However, the company canceled that premiere, citing shaky finances, and an ABT spokesman said Tuesday that the company still has no plans to produce it. The San Francisco Ballet’s “Nutcracker” was brought in at the eleventh hour to fill the ABT dates.

Orange County also saw the Joffrey Ballet’s Americana-version of the “Nutcracker” at the center in 1989.

Current subscribers to the 1992-93 center ballet series can buy “Nutcracker” tickets within two weeks. Individual tickets, ranging from $14 to $55, will go on sale in September. Information: (714) 556-2787.