A Nutcracker Weekend
The night before our trip to Manhattan for the New York Theatre Ballet's abbreviated Nutcracker last Sunday, I came across, on Netflix, the 1986 film version with the Pacific Northwest Ballet and the London Symphony Orchestra.
To cut down the ballet to a child-friendly one hour, the New York Theatre Ballet omitted the Dance of the Sugar Plum Fairy, so I thought I'd post the clip from Nutcracker: The Motion Picture here; Kadoty86 has a number of scenes on her YouTube channel. The dancer is Patricia Barker, who retired back in 2007 as a favorite of many dance fans in Seattle.
The NYBT production we saw with the children the next day was precious, in a good way. The choreography made it easy to follow the story while also giving the dancers lots of room to show their stuff. It was a young group that danced with verve; my daughter was transfixed.
The only distraction was the tinny recorded music. I know that the company can't afford a full band, but surely someone can put together a good chamber version that would be affordable and engaging.
But if you want to give your children the Nutcracker experience, this is the one. It's short, pretty, and good.
To cut down the ballet to a child-friendly one hour, the New York Theatre Ballet omitted the Dance of the Sugar Plum Fairy, so I thought I'd post the clip from Nutcracker: The Motion Picture here; Kadoty86 has a number of scenes on her YouTube channel. The dancer is Patricia Barker, who retired back in 2007 as a favorite of many dance fans in Seattle.
The NYBT production we saw with the children the next day was precious, in a good way. The choreography made it easy to follow the story while also giving the dancers lots of room to show their stuff. It was a young group that danced with verve; my daughter was transfixed.
The only distraction was the tinny recorded music. I know that the company can't afford a full band, but surely someone can put together a good chamber version that would be affordable and engaging.
But if you want to give your children the Nutcracker experience, this is the one. It's short, pretty, and good.