Saratoga City Ballet presents thoughtful, accomplished 'Nutcracker'

With a cast of about two dozen beautifully trained dancers, a logical story line fine-tuned by new SCB directors Julie P. Gedalecia and Eve D. Whelchel, sophisticated costume design and lovely painted backdrops, this polished 'Nutcracker' is appealing precisely because it is small-scale.

Yet, the production continues to grow and change. Now in its 11th year at the Skidmore College Dance Theater, SCB's 'Nutcracker' continually boasts redesigned choreography that keeps pace with the growing skill of its student dancers. New costumes and set pieces appear each year, adding pleasant surprises to the familiar bits.

Best of all, the young troupe is now able to include a talented Nutcracker Prince, a mysterious black-caped Drosselmeyer, and -- this year, for the first time -- a double-wide Mother Ginger, played by ballet dad Gene Auciello.

Auciello's daughter, Amy danced the Sugarplum Fairy on Sunday afternoon, as well as one of the Snow Maidens. She was a gracious Sugarplum, smiling from within, diving into her passages with joyous musicality. Her final variations and duet with the classically pure Mark Schou as the Nutcracker Prince included much of the traditional, 100-year-old choreography -- skimming, twirling, printing steps, fouettes that made my legs tingle.

Three senior dancers are performing their last 'Nutcrackers' this year: Auciello, Laura Piwinski and Christy Williams. Piwinski, a very strong dancer, was the Snow Queen and a sparkling Dewdrop Fairy in the Waltz of the Flowers. Williams, who danced Sugarplum in the evening performances, was a Snow Maiden on Sunday.

One of the pleasures of watching this 'Nutcracker' is to see the dancers advance, year by year, through the ballet's hierarchy of roles. The three senior dancers are poised and lovely, but their accomplishment means more to followers <>of the company who know the discipline and dedication it has taken for these dancers to reach their current level.

For the first eight years, there was no Nutcracker Prince. This year, Schou, an Albany resident who is a special student in dance at Skidmore and who plans to attend the Boston Conservatory next year, added a satisfying dimension to the ballet. He is handsome, an attentive partner who clearly enjoys dancing, and, he demonstrates clean line and élan in his spins and high split leaps.

Sergey Kotlinsky, a Pilates teacher from Clifton Park, was more actor than dancer as Drosselmeyer. He led Clara (Haleigh Buckley) in the midnight duet and battle with the very chic Rats, and then brought her and the Prince to the Land of Sweets, pushing the sleigh, which made fine tracks in the drifting snow.

SCB's production always has made lemonade from the ingredients at hand. One of their best ideas has been to change Clara's naughty brother Fritz into a sister, Fritzie, whose character is like that of Kate to Bianca in 'Taming of the Shrew.' Rachel Torgeson danced Fritzie as a bit of a tomboy, jealous of her pink-frocked sister, making mischief because she feels overlooked by her parents. Torgeson projected all this through the choreography, without facial overacting. She reappears as the glittering Mouse Queen in Clara's dream -- one of the many logical details in SCB's production.

More elaborate 'Nutcrackers' have a Christmas tree that grows before the audience's eyes. In clever contrast, SCB's fluffy tree turns to reveal a miniature international doll hidden within its several branches. These dolls foreshadow the more grownup dancers to come in the Spanish, Russian, Chinese, Arabic and Marzipan variations.

The costumes are of special interest because their color and design is more sophisticated, less candy-colored, than other 'Nutcrackers.' No designer is credited, perhaps because the store of costumes has grown and changed over the years, but Ruth Eisenhower is Costume Mistress, with a committee of five women who may well have designed and stitched the ruffled, cocoa-brown Spanish dresses and the wonderful forest green satin bodices that attach to each Flower's skirt like the calyx of a rose.

This is a thoughtful, accomplished production with its own ideas that has become more professional and purified over the years. It's lovely to look at. And, because it is small-scaled, we can see how Tchaikovsky's music and the choreography build together to the stunning climax of Sugarplum and the Prince. Each variation is a little longer, a bit more intricate than the one before. Each requires dancers older and stronger than the one before. In 'Nutcracker,' we are really looking at the orderly progression of a life well-lived.

SCB will perform excerpts from Act Two of 'Nutcracker,' the Land of the Sweets at 6 and 7 p.m. Friday, Dec. 31, during Saratoga First Night, at Saratoga Music Hall on the third floor of City Hall. Admission is free with a First Night button, available at downtown stores and banks and at the YMCA.