Word: baryshnikov
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...hand); outside Leningrad. Soloviev's exuberant grace and brilliant interpretation of classic roles won him fans not only in the U.S.S.R. but in the West, where he toured with Leningrad's Kirov Ballet. Although he lacked the passionate dynamism of Rudolf Nureyev or Mikhail Baryshnikov's transparent, effortless style, some critics believed that he was fully the equal of those famed Soviet emigres as a premier danseur...
Taking on the beloved Tchaikovsky classic as one's initial choreographic venture is a bold act even for Baryshnikov. The Nutcracker contains several problems. One challenge is to transform a children's story, based loosely on an E.T.A. Hoffmann fairy tale, into palatable adult fare. More complex still, a dramatic link must be fabricated to tie together two acts that are little more than kissing cousins. Act I recounts a Christmas episode in which an accident befalling a nutcracker, the favorite present of Clara Stahlbaum, triggers a dream. Toys come to life. A platoon of mice invades...
Suppressed Eroticism. With a canny mix of showmanship and a keen instinct for his craft, Baryshnikov has devised solutions that infuse his Nutcracker with logic as well as magic. There is the traditional Christmas tree that grows onstage, a puppet show and a pretty pink and white sleigh to transport Clara and her prince. But there is no Sugar Plum Fairy and the cast is entirely adult. Clara, danced by Marianna Tcherkassky, hovers somewhere between child and woman. Her godfather Drosselmeyer, brilliantly portrayed by Alexander Minz, is both fatherly and aboil with suppressed eroticism. Baryshnikov accents mystery and the paradox...
...Baryshnikov created his Nutcracker for Tcherkassky, 24, the ballerina whose A.B.T. debut last season in Giselle stirred much excitement. As Clara, Tcherkassky danced with the dewy radiance of a young Fonteyn. Well-matched physically and in spirit, Tcherkassky and Baryshnikov are natural partners. Their approach to dance is one of elegance and simplicity. Both are exceptionally musical and seem at times to dance on one breath...
With the exception of the Snowflakes' waltz, borrowed from Vassily Vainonen's Kirov production, Baryshnikov completely restaged The Nutcracker. His choreography is in a classical mold, swift and precise. There are overhead lifts of every variety, and many florid codas. In spirit, Baryshnikov echoes New York City Ballet's Jerome Robbins. Fluent lyrical lines are buoyed up by the current of the music. Like Robbins, too, he sometimes descends into Broadway kitsch; a clash of cymbals in the orchestra pit invariably signaled a showy lift onstage. The audience adored...