Saturday, December 15, 2007

More mugging the merrier in Ballet San Jose's 'Nutcracker'

There's a pleasantly warm, homey feeling almost as soon as you walk into the San Jose Performing Arts Center for Ballet San Jose's "Nutcracker." It's the kind of show at which a complete stranger might lean over the seat back and chat as if you'd been friends for years, and at Thursday's opening night for the company's two-week run, dancegoers of all ages were in anticipatory high spirits.

Artistic Director Dennis Nahat's staging of his 1979 ballet - with a scenario that he and the late Ian Horvath adapted from an E.T.A. Hoffmann tale - is a jaunty, colorful affair, full of bounce-and-go, enough to charm the first-time viewer or even the most jaded veteran of "Nutcrackers" past.

Read more on the SF Chronicle site.

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