A holiday classic – N.M. style

One way is that the company is returning to perform the holiday favorite for the second consecutive year. The other way is to think in terms that the setting of the production itself is again in New Mexico: That’s because the ballet is called “The Nutcracker in the Land of Enchantment.”

The original setting of the “Nutcracker” is the Land of Sweets.

The Festival Ballet Albuquerque production will be have five performances at the National Hispanic Cultural Center.

“The setting is changed from Germany of the 1890s to the New Mexico Territory of the 1890s. … But some people are confused because it is set in a different place,” said Patricia Dickinson Wells, Festival Ballet Albuquerque’s artistic director and the production’s choreographer.

“It’s the same era and it follows Marius Petipa’s original conception of the ballet but with my original choreography. It remains very classical.”

The music, performed by the Figueroa Project Orchestra, also is classical – Peter Ilich Tchaikovsky’s.

	If you go WHAT: “The Nutcracker in the Land of Enchantment” WHEN: 7 p.m. Friday, Dec. 21, 2 p.m. and 7 p.m. Saturday, Dec. 22 and 2 p.m. and 7 p.m. Sunday, Dec. 23 WHERE: National Hispanic Cultural Center, 1701 Fourth SW HOW MUCH: $14, $20, $29, $38 and $47 for the general public, $2 discount for seniors and children 10 and younger at the NHCC box office, by calling 505-724-4771 or online at www.nhccnm.org

The ballet is infused with other flavors of New Mexico:

♦ “The first act is a grand party in Territorial New Mexico. The fashion is Victorian but the women have more of a western Victorian feel to them, a lot of ruffles, and the men have a Western string-tie and vintage formal wear,” Dickinson Wells said.

♦ The host family in the act are the Pachecos; in the original “Nutcracker” the family is the Stahlbaums. The young girl Clara Stahlbaum is renamed Maria Pacheco.

♦ The traditional Mother Ginger Variation, for example, is retitled Storyteller “so that it has the impression of the Cochiti Pueblo storyteller (pottery) with the children,” Dickinson Wells said.

♦ The Marzipan Variation has a shepherd called by its Spanish name of Borreguero, four shepherdesses that are called Las Pastoras and a flock of sheep.

♦ The Russian Variation is renamed Fandango and it has a shindig-fandango feel of the movie “Seven Brides for Seven Brothers,” she said.

“I feel confident talking about it this year because it was such a success last year,” Dickinson Wells said. “I’ve made changes in the choreography to accommodate the high experience level of the dancers I have.”

In the fight scene that’s fought mainly between the Nutcracker and the soldiers against the Rat King and the rats, audiences will hear cannon blasts and air bursts, she said.

“And the Rat King has large coyote ears and a cholla crown,” she said.

The production has new sets and new groups of costumes.

Among the dancers are Justine Flores as Maria Pacheco, Garrett Dellios as the Nutcracker, Natalee Maxwell as the Snow Queen and Louie Rocatto as the Snow King, Louis Giannini is the Rat King and the lead male Fandango, Allison McDonald is the lead female Fandango, Joe Moncada is Tío Pacheco, Rasolinda Rojas is Granny Pacheco, Julie Cobble is the Sugar Plum Fairy and Dominic Guerra is the Cavalier.

There are approximately 75 in the cast.

“We are a regional company augmented by a large number of professionals,” Dickinson Wells said.