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Nahat drops Clara for Maria, or Masha, her Russians nickname, giving her two brothers and a sister, Alexsandra Meijer as Marie/Masha, Tiffany Glenn as sister, leaving carolers and mice to the school students who carry on with gusto. Maykel Solas was a jumping visitor while Michael Wagley and Peter Hershey were the Tannenbaum's two sons. The image of tiny tots versus adult-sized tin soldiers, wiggling and scampering against robotic adult movements not only is entertaining but conveys something of a message as well.

The house is overstuffed with walls of slightly maroon scarlet, just the sort of setting one would expect of a winter-dominated European household with several domestics. Maximo Califano as a supercilious butler does an excellent job with dramatic demands, his strongest role thus far. It’s a rambunctious as well as gustatory scene, concluding as Drosselmeyer presents Marie not only with the Nutcracker Doll, but a dress; she dons it for her trip to Moscow and the Tsar in Act II.

With Nutcracker/Prince Alexis Travis Walker, Meijer dances the Snow Scene before it is taken over by the flakes. They are also supplied with a conveyance taking them to Spain, the sands of Araby and mysterious Cathay before Alexis reaches his good old hometown Moscow gates, to be welcomed home by his imperial mama and papa who share the throne with the young couple while taking center stage in the grand pas de deux. Walker is slender, a good physical match for Meijer, less experienced, but a courteous young royal, guiding Marie/Meijer gently along the journey. They certainly execute a circular route to Russia: Spain, the Middle East, China.

This Act II has its moments, but the organic quality is altered with other P.I. Tchaikovsky compositions, making it consistent with this particular vision, but certainly not a traditional Nutcracker.
 

The Great Gates of Seville feature an Infanta-type Queen and courtiers doing usual Spanish motions; apprentice Amy Marie Briones provided some distinctive flash.

Perhaps the most charming moment comes when The Prince and Marie/Masha, while traveling to Moscow to encounter the Tsar and Tsarina, visit the Land of the Shifting Sands where a bulbous sheik ensconced on a cushioned pallet offers Marie a puff from his hookah, his favorite houri trying to divert them with la danse Arabe.

Arriving in the Land of the Ivory Pagoda finds Mirliton combined with the usual Chinese variation, all seeming repetitive, the same jumps and gestures used to fill the two variations.

The deliberate tempo in the grand pas de deux didn’t aid the Tsar and Tsarina, Jeremy Kovitch and Jing Zhang. Kovitch commenced with easily multiple pirouettes, delivered some nice jetes and tours, but the sagging momentum undermined his attack accented by his height and substantial shoulders. Zhang, a very pretty woman, has a very confident attack, a flashing smile and eyes playing come hither to the audience. She finishes off a phrase or movement with exaggerated accents of the hands and wrists, perhaps to distract from a tightness in her developpes en attitude which speak to work needed for greater suppleness in the hip joints.

The scene finishes off with a grand ballroom scene, music courtesy of Eugene Onegin, before we find Maria/Masha asleep by the fire in her holiday dress, the Nutcracker in her arms where once it had been on the mantel. Incidentally, Meijer was first-rate, consistent throughout.