Some know how to freshen up ‘The Nutcracker’

Dominated this year by belly dancing, the Spectrum version of “The Nutcracker” uses little Clara’s Christmas dream as an open-ended structure allowing a wide range of local companies to present their specialties.

In its best moments you get a sense of L.A. diversity superimposed on the Spanish-Arabian-Chinese-Russian matrix of the original 1892 ballet. And sometimes a contemporary artist will rethink a “Nutcracker” concept and come up with something as distinctive as Mark Morris and Matthew Bourne did in their radically revamped stagings.

That happened at the Ivar Theater on Saturday during Holly Mistine’s “Spanish (Chocolate)” solo in Act 2: a thoughtful, inventive conversation between ballet and flamenco sensibilities.

Ken Morris’ doll solo for the intense, versatile Micah Mock as well as Nina McNeely’s eccentric doll duet for herself and Marlon Pelayo had some of the same creativity matched with strong performance skills.

Though it suffered from several false endings, Hilary Thomas’ modern-dance “Flowers” for the women of her Lineage Dance Company did achieve a sense of buoyant, serene femininity -- maybe not what Petipa, Ivanov and Tchaikovsky had in mind 113 years ago but a glowing millennial equivalent.

Otherwise, most of the evening’s choreographers simply pasted “Nutcracker” titles onto the kind of divertissements they present all year long. Kenji Yamaguchi, for instance, is never shy about showing off his phenomenal technique -- but one Slavic squat-kick wasn’t nearly enough to justify calling his flamboyant rock solo “Russian (Trepak).”

Nor did Aleya’s torso gyrations atop a pedestal drum, garnished by quivering houris of the Aleya and Negma Dance Ensemble, credibly evoke “Sugar Plums,” though their costumes were at least plum-colored.

Shirley Martin’s “Chinese (Tea)” suite for the Martin Dancers looked more Afro-Caribbean than Asian, shuffled groups and soloists onto and off of the stage with no evident purpose but did boast a number of vibrant performers.

Arguably the most bizarre lapse came in what was listed as “Clara and the Nutcracker Prince” but turned out to be a high-speed, hard-sell nightclub adagio created by and for Ruby Karen and Ruben Enguio. Although in other scenes Karen played Clara conventionally as a wide-eyed child, here she performed gymnastic contortions while lifted and flung in the air, stripped to the legal limit. If they existed in this version, the Sugar Plum Fairy would be shocked and Mother Ginger would faint dead away.

Tchaikovsky’s music most often turned up as transitional underscoring on Saturday, but John Castagna supplied a graceful, if under-danced, “Snow” ensemble for his Ballet Collective women.

Choreography by Paula Present, Dani Lunn, Shelley Montgomery Puente (Everything Celtic Dance Company) and Juliette Arroyo (Arabesque Dance Company) completed the program. Spectrum producer Deborah Brockus appeared as the harried mother in Act 1, and Ken Morris contributed expert cape-swirling as Drosselmeyer.