FAQ

No. In many filmed performances of a ballet staged live before an audience, the dancers' faces barely register because the camera is so interested in capturing the entire stage that it is too far away from the performers. In this one, the camera seems to, in some cases, get quite close to the performers, mostly so we can see their facial reactions at key moments. It is almost as if the filming had been very painstakingly worked out in advance, and there are moments when we forget we are watching a performance in a theatre. For instance, when Fritz tries to make the Nutcracker crack a walnut too big for his jaws, the Nutcracker, who behaves as if he were alive even at the Christmas party, angrily throws the nut back at him, and we see Fritz's amazed reaction clearly. Later on, in the Act II Pas de Deux, passionately danced by Masha and the Nutcracker Prince, the expression of what has been described in a blog as "sexual ecstasy" on Masha's face is shown at one point almost in closeup. The expressions of thoughtless frivolity on the faces of Masha's parents during the Christmas party in the first act are also clearly visible.

This version of "The Nutcracker" is just as much a pantomime as a ballet, perhaps more, and Irina Golub, who plays Masha, is shown in this case to be nearly as talented in giving an acting performance as in dancing. Anton Adasinsky, who plays Drosselmeyer, is a pantomime artist rather than a true dancer, and his acting ability stands out more than that of the real dancers. The Nutcracker Prince appears only during the last twenty minutes of the ballet in this version, and his acting is mostly confined to smiling happily at Masha. (The only dancers who play her and Drosselmeyer more convincingly than Ms. Golub and Mr. Adasinsky are Gelsey Kirkland and Alexander Minz in the famous Baryshnikov "Nutcracker".)