Ah, tradition. New York City Ballet’s “The Nutcracker” is as much about kicking off the holiday season as it is about dance. Opening night Fri day had a light, warm touch, like the annual visit of an old friend, with children in the audience as well as on the stage dressed in their best party outfits.
George Balanchine’s version of the tale has a nostalgic Christmas party scene and old-fashioned effects — no lasers here. The Christmas tree gets winched up to grow, and a boy under the bed makes it move magically.
The child heroine, Marie, was the wide-eyed, 9-year-old Fiona Brennan, but Gregor MacKenzie Gillen, 8, as her beastly little brother Fritz nearly stole the show with his droll face and comic timing.
Robert La Fosse imbued the toymaker Drosselmeier with benevolent strangeness — the sort of outsider who could bring magic to an ordinary home. Jonathan Alexander, 12, played his young nephew like a magician’s assistant: with a straight face, but with a trick or two of his own up his sleeve when he transformed into the Nutcracker Prince.
Act 2 has most of the dancing, and Jenifer Ringer was a Sugarplum Fairy crafted by an expert confectioner. She danced a sophisticated solo, during which she played with the music just enough and no more. You can also see she’s the mother of a toddler herself in the warm way she smiled at the child angels shuffling about her.
Her cavalier, Jared Angle, looked a little out of shape, but he’s a pro at the trickier-than-it-looks partnering. If Ringer was a sweet, elegant Sugarplum, Ashley Bouder was a high-voltage Dewdrop as she led the Waltz of the Flowers. She bounded straight into the air to thrill the audience and challenge herself.
Clotilde Otranto put the company’s orchestra through their paces, conducting Tchaikovsky’s delicate and marvelous score at a brisk clip. The corps, filled with new faces, hustled through the Snowflake Waltz, and they looked as if they loved it.
There will be several different casts performing throughout the run, but that probably won’t matter to the kids in the audience. When you’re 5, one Sugarplum Fairy is as magical as the next.