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Nutcracker on commercial TV


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I was doing channel surfing and happened upon a performance of Nutcracker on my local UPN network. which suprised me by the fact that I thought UPN only shows Star Terk TV series. Anyway, the ballet was performed by the PNB and it is called Nutcracker The Motion Picture. I was only able to catch the last third of the show from which mother ginger and her little bon bons danced. The part of mother ginger have been omitted, instead of the children coming out under her skirt, a weird looking man opens a big book from which the children emerged from it, different but strange none-the-less. Dr. Drosselmeyer was in this ballet been replaced by even-more stranger looking character wearing a large turban on his head. :confused: From what I could gather this film was released in 1986 and was danced by Hugh Bigney and Vanessa Sharp. Has anyone else seen this film? Could anyone tell me more about it? Thanks.

P.S. Also on Sunday 12-15, A&E is showing once again the Swedish royal Opera Ballet's Nutcarcker on the breakfast with the Arts show. :)

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The movie in question is a filming of the PNB version of Nutz that the company still performs. I'm not overly fond of any production that keeps Drosselmeyer as an old man after the battle with the mice. If you read the original story, the nutcracker is sort of a doppelganger for Drosselmeyer, and when he is transformed, then HE'S Drosselmeyer, emerging from a curse of ugliness. The guy in the turban is Drossie in this production, by the way. The film succeeds on a lot of levels, but is weakened by the "civilian" filmmaker's desire for an "interesting shot" when it views floor patterns taken from directly overhead, or does an unnecessary closeup on a corps woman that the director finds unusually photogenic.

Wouldn't it be interesting to have a Star Trek ballet? The Betazoids could just stand there and think the choreography at people. Heck, they wouldn't even have to leave their dressing rooms to do it, come to think of it! And maybe with Lwaxana Troi threatening to take all her clothes off so much, perhaps this would be best!;)

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Hello Mel and thanks for the infos. I love the idea of Star Trek ballet ;) I would like to see the whole stage set-up as the flight deck of the Enterprise and have all the corps bourrée en pointe from stage left to stage right and then back again during attacks from the Romulan. I wonder which company will be brave enough to have my dream realized. :D

P.S. If I'm not mistaken, did they got rid of the Sugar Plum Fairy in the movie? I didn't see any credit given to the role.

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Not only does she take over the "sugarplum fairy" part, she also dances the doll variation...

This is the video with Patricia Barker? If not, it was someone who looked a lot like her...

Not my favorite production, by a long shot. Perhaps it looks better live?

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