Just hours before the curtain went up for the first Dubai performance of Moscow City Ballet’s production of The Nutcracker at the weekend, principal ballet mistress Ludmila Nerubashenko sat in the topmost row at the Dubai Community Theatre and Arts Centre, her voice blaring through the speaker each time the principal dancer faltered.
“Stop, please!” she says in Russian and drops the microphone to demonstrate a theatrical move from her seat to a giggling 26-year-old Anna Ivanova, the dancer who plays the lead character, Clara, in the popular two-act ballet.
The organisers of The Nutcracker in the UAE, Art For All, had to book the 26-year-old Russian ballet company a year in advance because of the high demand for this particular production around the world during Christmas. In Dubai, the weekend shows were sold out. The production has now moved to Abu Dhabi for performances at Emirates Palace today and tomorrow.
“In Russia, The Nutcracker is an all-year-round favourite,” says Nerubashenko. “And in other countries everyone wants us to stage The Nutcracker during Christmas. I think it’s because the story is so magical, with a Christmas tree and Santa Claus. It’s like we bring a fairy tale for children and adults to life.”
The original stage show was choreographed by Marius Petipa and Lev Ivanov, and set to a rousing score by the Russian composer Peter Ilyich Tchaikovsky in 1892.
Original article by Afshan Ahmed
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Moscow City Ballet brings The Nutcracker to Emirates Palace
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