DANCE REVIEW : Joffrey ‘Nutcracker’ Tests Limits With Cast Changes

As senior ballerina of the Joffrey Ballet, Beatriz Rodriguez has danced more than her share of cowgirls, warrior women, sacrificial virgins and embodiments of profane love. She has been memorable as a 300-year-old crone and on Friday afternoon appeared at the Dorothy Chandler Pavilion in the role of little Clara, child-heroine of the company’s “Nutcracker.”

It was, as they say, a stretch. Looking sweet and shy in her ringlets, Rodriguez created a stylized and somewhat sentimental characterization that sometimes clashed with the approach of the real children in the production. And, without significant dancing opportunities, the role depended on credible interaction with others.

Her Joffrey colleagues were not much help in this particular cast. Todd Stickney always seemed a short grown-up, rather than a tall kid, as her brother Fritz. (He looked more comfortable impersonating a Russian nougat in Act 2). And Tyler Walters remained coolly aloof from both this Clara and his Sugar Plum Fairy (Deborah Dawn) as the Nutcracker Prince. He also ran into major partnering problems in the Grand Pas de Deux.

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Rodriguez did establish a warm rapport with the Drosselmeyer of Adam Sklute--another artist less-than-ideally cast on Friday afternoon. But the most satisfying casting innovations involved other dancers. As the Snow Queen, for example, Jenny Sandler demonstrated a command of classical style strong enough to triumph over the effortful dancing of David Kierce as her King.

Maia Wilkins looked fresh and forceful in the Spanish dance and, thanks to the teamwork of Kim Sagami and Joseph Schnell, the Chinese dance looked like a collaborative duet rather than the usual cutthroat competition.

Best of all, Ryuji Yamamoto brought his distinctive classical purity to the Snow Prince choreography. On Wednesday, Calvin Kitten had danced this assignment as a virtuoso’s showpiece, but Yamamoto somehow transformed it into a danseur noble’s meditation--an imaginative conception beautifully executed.