DANCE REVIEW : Lezhnina Warms Kirov’s ‘Nutcracker’

Larissa Lezhnina brought the Christmas spirit to a generally frosty Kirov Ballet “Nutcracker,” Thursday at the Performing Arts Center.

Dancing Masha for the first time in the Orange County engagement, the 23-year-old company principal may have stylized most of her character’s childlike behavior, but she also warmed every scene with perhaps the most radiant smile seen on any ballet stage since the prime of Anthony Dowell.

Her sense of delight and wonder when it began to snow proved exactly what this fancy-dress, fairy-tale Christmas ballet needed and she managed to sustain her remarkable sweetness through all its classical and acrobatic rigors--even in the truncated, unmusical last-act solo. If you wanted exemplary line, refined technique and a kind of floating ease, you got them in her performance but also the generosity of feeling that has always made great Russian dancers irresistible.

Opposite her, the Kirov cast Victor Baranov, a 28-year-old graduate of the Perm Choreographic School making his American debut. In looks and line, this Nutcracker Prince ideally matched his partner, but his dancing proved unseasoned, characterized as much by rough landings, shaky terminations and lapses of stamina as by the coltish charm he brought to the role.

Worse, the crucial partnering duties found Baranov nervous and effortful, inevitably lessening Lezhnina’s illusion of freedom and spontaneity. An appealing, finely trained artist of impressive potential but, clearly, not yet ready for the star spotlight.

Beyond Lezhnina and Baranov, the Thursday performance reunited cast members reviewed earlier. Alexander Polianichko conducted.