Thursday, February 13, 2025

Moscow Ballet will perform its “Great Russian Nutcracker” at UNCW’s Kenan Hall

nutcracker
Masha and the Prince on their Troika sled, from “The Great Russian Nutcracker.” The Moscow Ballet will bring the show to the University of North Carolina at Wilmington later this month. (Courtesy nutcracker.com)

WILMINGTON — The Moscow Ballet will visit the Port City to perform its unique version of Tchaikovsky’s “Nutcracker Suite.”

kostantyn-vinovoy
Kostantyn Vinovoy, principal dancer. (Courtesy nutcracker.com)

The Russian ballet company and their take on the Nutcracker developed out of the “Glasnost Tours.” During these 1988-1992 performances, the then-Soviet company took a cue from Mikhail Gorbachev’s glasnost and the thawing in U.S.-Soviet relations. In that spirit, the company replaced the traditional ‘Land of the Sugar Plum Fairy’ of the second act with the ‘Realm of Peace and Harmony,’ which features emissaries from around the world (the ballet does still perform to Tchaikovsky’s complete score). The company has toured the U.S. since 1993.

The Moscow Ballet is also known for its “Dance with Us” program which auditions youth and young adult dancers to perform with the company in their home cities. Since 1995 the company has featured with over 75,000 dancers through the program.

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Ekaterina Alaeva, principal ballerina. (Courtesy nutcracker.com)

The 2016 production features new sets designed by designed by Academy-Award-nominee Carl Sprague (“Age of Innocence” and “Twelve Years as a Slave”).

Its performance stars acclaimed principal dancers Ekaterina Alaeva and Kostyantyn Vinovoy.

(Read the full bios of the principal dancers.)

The Moscow Ballet will perform at the University of North Carolina at Wilmington’s Kenan Auditorium on Tuesday, Nov. 22, at 7:30 p.m. Tickets range from $23 to $175 and are available online. Additional ticket information is available from nutcracker.com.

Below: Watch the Moscow Ballet’s 2014 performance the battle between the Prince and the Rat King.

 

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