The Nutcracker - Pacific Northwest Ballet

(Culturati alert?!!)

A good Christmas memory for me would always be ushered in by the Dance of The Sugar Plum Fairy from the ballet The Nutcracker. This is mostly because I was made to dance to this as a kid and because they play this in some parts of Home Alone.

I saw the 1986 stage to film adaptation of the Nutcracker by the Pacific Northwest Ballet Company last night on MGM right after Glee. (So this movie is just as old as I am; and yes, I saw the Wheels episode of Glee.)

The production and costume designs were dreamy, of course. We have Where the Wild Things Are author and illustrator Maurice Sendak to thank for these.

This version's ending could have been more dreamy if it had stuck to the original E.T.A Hoffman short story where in Maria(Clara) marries the nutcracker prince is who is her godfather Dosselmeier's nephew. Instead, the film almost ends abruptly when after a series of dances, the whole cast wave goodbye to a floating Clara and Prince. They later fall from the heavens and Clara wakes up in her bed, a young thirteen year old girl again and alone.

Some of the dances seemed like they were there for the sake of but that's not surprising in a ballet or a classical production.