I decided to travel from NY to Washington DC to see Cornejo and Reyes in The Nutcracker. I hadn't seen it since the days of Baryshnikov and had forgotten that Kevin McKenzie had rechoreographed the ballet. In the Baryshnikov version, Clara and the Nutcracker dance together in the first act and in much of the second. McKenzie separates their roles and those
for the Sugar Plum Fairy and her Cavalier. As a result, Reyes and Cornejo danced only the final pas de deux. In addition, most of the new choreography was quite bland. The exceptions were the Waltz of the Flowers which was created by John Meehan and the pas de deuz for Reyes and Cornejo. However, both Reyes and Cornejo were superb. It was such a thrill to see them dance together. I was sorry only because their roles were so limited in this production.
I was especially interested in seeing some of the younger dancers. Yuriko Kajiya danced the role of Clara. While I thought that McKenzie's choreography was not as interesting as it needed to be, she danced it beautifully. She played the role of a young girl falling in love. Possibly because McKenzie didn't want her style to compete with the Sugar Plum Fairy's,
the choreography for Clara was a bit repetitious and lacking in challenge.
Sarah Lane was one of the five fairies and looked especially radiant. Hee Seo was the Snow Queen and led the dancers beautifully. Sacha Radetsky and Stella Abrera danced the Arabian variation and received a deserved ovation from the audience.

That goes right in my boat.... (Isn't Xiomara beautiful..?)

Glad to see that Sarah Lane is back from her injury.

Really, she has a charm which is very nice but her head is simple tooooooooo big.

Her head is too big?! Really? Wow... she's such a beautiful dancer... I never would have thought to judge the size of her head.

Xiomara's head is not too big.

Xiomara's head is perfect.

Feh feh.

Xiomara's feet are also perfect - not too big, not too small.

Hmf ..