BELOVED BALLET Transcendental Tradition

'GREAT RUSSIAN NUTCRACKER' COMES TO FORT SMITH THEATER

By Sara Sullivan

Posted: November 13, 2009 at 9:13 a.m.

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FAYETTEVILLE — The Nutcracker’ transcends the season,” its co-producer says.

“It is Christmas. It is fantasy. It is our childhood memories.”

And for 34 local children, she’s not speaking metaphorically.

A cadre of young dancers from Northwest Arkansas, Fort Smith and even Anderson, Mo., will be performing with the cast of the Moscow Ballet in “The Great Russian Nutcracker” at 7:30 p.m. Wednesday at the Fort Smith Convention Center.

“That’s a long haul for the kids to come down to Fort Smith,” says Mary Talmi, one of the show’s producers, but it speaks to the children’s - and their parents’ - commitment to the dance.

The youngsters, ages 6 to 18, will be dancing roles like mice, angels and snowflakes. The 33 girls and one boy have been rehearsing since the beginning of October at Ballet Westside in Rogers under the direction of Dorothy Taylor, who has owned and run the dance studio for 25 years.

A representative from the Moscow Ballet selected performers based on dance skill and body size during open auditions, and the children have been practicing together on Sundays.

On the day of the ballet, the young dancers will arrive in Fort Smith about five hours before the performance, Taylor says. They will be fitted into elaborate costumes provided by the Moscow Ballet - “They always love the costumes,” Taylor says - then go through their one and only rehearsal on stage with the dance company. The children will then take pictures, have a dinner break and take the stage for the performance.

“It’s a once-in-a-lifetime opportunity” for most, Taylor says, to have “the satisfaction of being able to dance on stage with a real, live Russian professional.”

And “The Nutcracker” is particularly dazzling.

“I believe that the Russian classical ballet tradition is so rich ... that their interpretation is really the standard” to which others are compared, Talmi says.

And though the hand-painted sets are built for simplicity and lightness, they along with the costumes and lighting provide “all that your sense of spectacle can handle.”

About 40 dancers are in the Russian company, which has toured “The Nutcracker” through the United States during November and December for the past 17 years.

“It’s what they call ‘bus and truck,’” Talmi explains, as the dancers and crew travel from one city to the next by bus and the costumes and sets travel in trucks. They are often performing in a new place every night.

“This is the life of a dancer,” says Talmi, who studied modern dance at Juilliard and spent a great deal of her career as a choreographer. “You train all of your life to dance, you get into a dance company, and you go on tour.”

So traveling regularly is a bit commonplace.

“But they do stick out,” Talmi admits of ballerinas en masse. “Especially when you go into a Denny’s. Or a Friendly’s. Or Walmart! Oh my gosh,they love Walmart!” (“Walmart is uniquely American,” she explains.

“They have a very hardy appreciation for the amount that Americans have at their disposal.”)

The lead role of Masha - called Marie or Clara in other productions - will be performed by prima ballerina Cristina Terentieva, who wasawarded the Gold Medal at the Varna International Ballet Competition in 2008. “It is one of - if not THE - highest honors bestowed upon a ballerina,” Talmi explains. Her husband, Alexei Terentiev, was honored at the same competition as Best Partner; he will be starring across from his wife as the Prince.

Entertainment, Pages 11 on 11/13/2009

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