Moscow Ballet's Great Russian Nutcracker

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Photo courtesy of nutcracker.com

Moscow Ballet’s Great Russian Nutcracker

Moscow remains a name of legend in the world of Russian ballet. Shortly after the art form began in the former capital, St. Petersburg, in the 1730s, Moscow became the dance tradition’s second city in 1776, when the Bolshoi Ballet was founded there. But the Moscow Ballet that tours the U.S. is a comparative newcomer to the field. Though many of its performers have solid roots in top Russian and Eastern European companies, it started in 1993, just four years before our own Carolina Ballet, as a world-class pick-up company that only performs each November and December. Its recent provenance, stemming from the era of glasnost, is reflected in its updated choreography as well. Instead of venturing into the traditional Land of Sweets in the second act, its principals journey to the Land of Peace and Harmony, where they meet a new character: a winged creature created by two dancers called the Dove of Peace. The dream lives on in the company’s three-night stand. —Byron Woods