DANCE REVIEW : Bravura Stepping in Moscow’s ‘Nutcracker’

Seen last year in Cerritos, the Moscow Classical Ballet “Nutcracker” dispenses with Christmas cheer in favor of hard-sell virtuosity. Don’t expect a magic Christmas tree: This version makes everyone from little Fritz to old Drosselmeyer punch out bravura steps as if the event were some kind of cradle-to-the-grave technique competition.

There’s even a Mouse Queen who clearly believes she’s the Black Swan--and although the result proves undeniably lively, the performance Thursday at the Haugh Performing Arts Center in Glendora would have been utterly soulless but for the sweetness and vulnerability of Ekaterina Berezina as Masha. Berezina may jump and turn with the authority of a seasoned Russian ballerina, but she remembers enough about childhood and heartbreak to give this staging the center of feeling it so badly needs.

Credited to company directors Nalalia Kasatkina and Vladimir Vasiliov--with inserts from the same antique Vassily Vainonen version revived by the Kirov in 1992--this “Nutcracker” is danced to deafening canned Tchaikovsky in sets by Lev Solodovnikov and costumes by Elizaveta Dvorkina that look skimpy compared to the opulence of what local companies can offer.

Happily, the dancing is another matter. Russian training should never be taken for granted and, even if the Moscow Classical Ballet lacks a distinguished corps, the soloists are a commanding lot with their hyper-extended limbs, high-velocity clarity of execution and classic Soviet-style indigo eyelids.

Besides Berezina, the Thursday cast boasted the superbly steely Tatiana Yatsenko as the Mouse Queen and the tirelessly flamboyant Sergei Domrachev as Fritz. In the title role, Konstantin Osin couldn’t partner reliably but looked elegant and polished in solo passages.

Valery Trofimchuk never developed any coherent sense of character or purpose as Drosselmeyer but performed all his duties efficiently.