Dance Review : A Bold ‘Nutcracker’ From Chamber Ballet

Forget Christmas card nostalgia. From its Bauhaus-style snowflake-tutus to the “Blond Ambition” bra on Mother Ginger, the brand-new L.A. Chamber Ballet “Nutcracker” adopts a boldly 20th-Century theatricality.

Danced to tape in its premiere at Cal State L.A. on Thursday, the production set the Christmas party scene against flat geometric panels that could suddenly open up to become a doorway, a box holding doll-dancers--or a saw-toothed abstraction of a Christmas tree.

Later on, set designer Yu-Ming Chien offered a gigantic origami mobile in place of the usual snow forest and a series of descending brass clock faces to decorate the rather chilly, wide-open vistas of Candyland.

Unfortunately, Chien’s taste for emblematic simplicity didn’t stand a chance against the blitz of neo-Expressionist effects launched by costume designer Francine Lecoultre--an astonishing spectacle on its own terms, perhaps, but seldom suited to either the distinctive linear shapes of classical ballet or the curiously traditional version of the story line adopted by the company.

Moreover, choreographer Laurence Blake couldn’t tell that story clearly--much less create dances that defined character--so all the modernist hoopla of the staging ended up utterly hollow. Little Marie, the mysterious Drosselmeyer and the rest never came alive--they just kept punching out flashy steps in flashy costumes.

Although his ensemble choreography suffered from the attempt to make Marie a constant participant in the action rather than a mere observer, Blake clearly responded to the feverish drive of these passages in the score with a surge of genuine invention. And his Mouse battle blazed with resourceful stagecraft. But the last act divertissement provided little beyond hand-me-down platitudes--including a standard-issue pas de deux for a guest ballerina.

At least Sylvia Rico brought impressive warmth, ease and technical surety to her Sugar Plum duties, looking radiant even when Eric Skinner mismanaged a lift and nearly dropped her. Besides being Rico’s accident-prone cavalier, Skinner served capably as the Nutcracker soldier and prince, a character very much in the shadow of Drosselmeyer in this version.

However, even Drosselmeyer had no real narrative function after the party scene, and all of Francois Perron’s technical authority in the role counted for little under the circumstances. As Marie, Carol Guidry worked doggedly to forge connections between characters and scenes, eventually resembling the desperate hostess of some deadly party.

John Funk proved equally convincing as a hot, wiggly Mouse King and a cool, slinky Arabian dancer. But the most memorable transformation of the evening involved veteran Royal Ballet character dance paragon Stanley Holden as Mother Ginger. A purple-haired, post-punk, music hall vision with nine kiddies hidden under his skirts, Holden set the seal on a production ultimately more focused on dressing outrageously than with dancing, storytelling or the Christmas spirit.

* L.A. Chamber Ballet dances “The Nutcracker” today at 2 and 8 p.m. and Sunday at 2 p.m in the Luckman Fine Arts Complex, Cal State L.A., 5151 State University Drive, (213) 466-1767. Tickets: $18 and $22.