There we were in Solon High's nice auditorium (seats and sightlines comparing favorably with those in the Allen Theatre, (where Pennsylvania Ballet performed their Nutcracker this year); we were probably the only adults in the audience without relatives on stage. This is a story ballet designed for children, yet, who knows what children in the audience get out of this annual marker?

On the way home, we realized how, for us anyway, the first act defines ballet by showing what it is not. The first thing we see in Nutcracker is not classical ballet dancing but a dramatization of a party. There is some social dancing at the party, and later some mechanical dancing dolls, but it isn't until the snowstorm at the end of Act One that we see actual sustained ballet dancing.

The first act is a tease as far as actual dancing goes, but the ideas developed in the first act provide an introduction to the rest of the ballet. The magic performed at the party and the magic (or dream) that causes the tree - and everything else - to become larger (and larger and larger and larger!) signals transformation from one reality to another. This prepares us for the change from the choreographed but inherently pedestrian movement of act one to the otherworldly aspirations inherent in classical ballet. Courtly behavior between the sexes, depicted in the party scene, sets the scene for the second act where courtly conventions of ballet partnering are the norm.

Little Nutcracker acknowledges that it is inspired by the version of Nutcracker that Dennis Nahat choreographed for Cleveland Ballet. From the first notes of the Tchaikovsky score, Nahat's version of Nutcracker follows a different path from the traditional version, and Nahat's was the version of Nutcracker that Cleveland audiences saw for years. It was nice, and while we enjoy the Mother Ginger/Sugar Plum Fairy version that Pennsylvania Ballet brings to town, we sort of miss the other. But not too much ... because Cleveland School of Dance Artistic Director Gladisa Guadalupe danced in Nahat's Nutcracker and taught in the School of Cleveland Ballet, whose child dancers she prepared to perform in Nahat's ballet, and she follows the Nahat scenario closely.

The party scene is a case in point. If Nahat's Nutcracker was never quite the cash cow that he and Cleveland Ballet needed, it certainly provided an excellent training ground for dancers. In the first act party scene, every character had an assignment for each moment on stage. Bits of business were refined and reworked over the years, new dancers mentored by their predecessors. It's not our idea of the best kind of ballet, extended dramatization like this, but we have to acknowledge that ballet theater is a staple of ballet repertoire, and a necessary part of the training of any dancer with professional aspirations.

And that's what we see in the Little Nutcracker's first act party scene, business that's been thought out, student performers who've received direction, something to see wherever the audience looks.

Naturally, Little Nutcracker isn't like Nahat's Nutcracker step for step. Take Little Nutcracker's snowstorm, for instance. In order to fill the stage with snowflakes dancing on pointe, Cleveland Ballet routinely recruited apprentices, senior students, and local guest artists. For Little Nutcracker's snowstorm, Guadalupe probably needs to use every dancer she has on pointe. Naturally this involves adjustments in the choreography. Last year, she left the more difficult dancing to soloists and reduced the corps' dancing to simple but effective wafting about; work the young dancers all managed without a hitch.

For us, finally, Little Nutcracker is about the dancers. Standouts last year were Maria DeTomaso as Maria, Yelena Georgiadi as the Snow Queen and the Spanish Courtier, and Bradley Stader as the Nutcracker/Prince. You needn't be a relative to get a special kick out of seeing very young people dance well. We don't know much about the casting for this year but one thing Little Nutcracker is about even more than other Nutcrackers is succession; senior dancers graduate and are replaced by dancers who have worked their way up from other parts. This year one of the few adult professionals guesting in Little Nutcracker is Seth Parker as the Nutcracker/Prince. Parker is a graduate of Cleveland School of Dance currently dancing professionally for Ohio Ballet. Now that strikes us as appropriate casting for Little Nutcracker, showing what young dancers can do and what they can become.
http:// www.Cleveland School Of Dance?.org. from Cool Cleveland contributors Elsa Johnson and Victor Lucas vicnelsa@earthlink.net

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