After the Sweets divertissements, the white-clad couple, called Clara the Princess (Gillian Murphy) and Nutcracker the Prince (David Hallberg), dance the majestic grand pas de deux. Their spectacular leaps and sparkly step variations are dotted with hesitations and awkward, childlike hops. Suddenly, Murphy runs to the side of the stage and falls to her knees, covering her eyes and weeping. Hallberg walks over and comforts her, then draws her back into the duet. I think she's crying because she's so happy. These may be supernatural, remote virtuosos, but they share the primal feelings we think we've outgrown.
Related:
2009: The year in dance, Reality riffs, Airs and graces, More 
- 2009: The year in dance
You could say there were two tremendous forces that propelled dance into the world of modern culture: the Ballets Russes of Serge Diaghilev and the choreography of Merce Cunningham.
- Reality riffs
When Jerome Robbins's New York Export: Opus Jazz boogied onto the scene in 1958 then took Europe by storm. Created for Ballets: U.S.A., a company of ballet, modern, and jazz dancers that Robbins had put together for a government-sponsored cultural exchange tour, Opus Jazz was a kind of spinoff from the 1957 hit musical West Side Story , which Robbins directed and choreographed.
- Airs and graces
Somewhere in the middle of Stephen Petronio’s terrific hour-long dance I Drink the Air Before Me last Friday night, the dancers exited and the space went dark.
- Conductor karaoke
Surrealists who work with movement have to manage a demanding slight-of-hand.
- Happy returns
George Balanchine didn’t go in for productions of the old classic ballets.
- Offerings
Nora Chipaumire’s lions will roar, swans will fly, angels will wrestle heaven, rains will break: gukarahundi , presented at the ICA last weekend by CRASHarts, had the makings of a multimedia extravaganza.
- Meta-theater
Choreographer Tim Rushton makes unusual, high-powered dance movement and blends it with slick but modest theatrical appurtenances, sound scores that claim your attention, and important program notes.
- Theme and variations
George Balanchine was famous for “non-story” ballets, but when you put three of his works — the usual number to fill up an evening — together, you always get some kind of narrative.
- Still life
Nobody knew very much about Mike Disfarmer. Even his name was a fabrication.
- Taporama
Teaching is a deep experience in tap dancing, and it's not confined to technique instruction in the studio.
- Fall Dance Preview: Things are moving around town
This fall’s dance events include reprises at local companies.
- Less
Topics:
Dance
, Entertainment, Dance, Dance, More
, Entertainment, Dance, Dance, Nutcracker, Alexei Ratmansky, David Hallberg, Gillian Murphy, CULTURE, American Ballet Theatre, Less
