Dance Arts Los Alamos ballerina Isabella Bailey as Sugar Plum of Grace. Courtesy/DALA

Review by KIRSTEN LASKEY
Los Alamos Daily Post
kirsten@ladailypost.com

Sometimes you just need to throw the guidebook away and make your own story. This sentiment is certainly true with Dance Arts Los Alamos’ (DALA) most recent production of “The Nutcracker”. Even the name has changed; “Ratcracker on the Hill” begins at 7 p.m. today at Duane Smith Auditorium and continues at 2 p.m. Saturday and Sunday.

How many versions of “The Nutcracker” have been performed? No doubt countless but there has never been one quite like DALA’s. First off, it is part of a trilogy – “Ratcracker on the Hill” is part-two of a three-part series. This alone makes DALA’s production wholly unique. And that is not an opinion; it is a fact. DALA Director and creator of this ballet Jonathan Guise checked around and even researched the Library of Congress. Never has there been a trilogy for “The Nutcracker”.

So, it seems fitting that a ground-breaking ballet is set during the Manhattan Project, a time in history when Los Alamos also was breaking ground in the race to build the atomic bomb and help end World War II.

Here’s a brief synopsis: in unexpected turn events – the rats, led by the Rat Queen, have conquered the Land of Sweets. Meanwhile, J. Robert Oppenheimer and Gwen Groves are trapped in the Land of Sweets but have teamed up the Sugar Plum Fairy and her friends to battle against the Rat Queen and return safely home.

With this plot twist, everything is backwards from the traditional ballet. The show starts in the Land of Sweets where the Rat Queen and her subjects are having a Christmas party. The second act occurs on Dec. 24, 1944 in Fuller Lodge.

Watching this original ballet is similar to enjoying a Christmas peppermint. It is sweet, full of zing and absolutely refreshing.

First off, the sets and costumes are glorious. The real showpiece is the rendering of the main room in Fuller Lodge but DALA’s iconic sets for “The Nutcracker” – the candy garlands and giant wedding cake –got a cool, punk-rock makeover to prove that the rats are now in charge. They are in tatters and covered in graffiti. Costume Mistress Daria Cuthbertson and her team deserve major accolades for the gorgeous costumes. While I am always partial to bedazzled tutus, the costumes that mirror the fashions of the 1940s and wartime Los Alamos are incredible.

Everything has a new look in this production. The choreography in the second act mirrors popular dances during the World War II era like swing and the classic Nutcracker suite music has a new jazzy, big-band sound.

“The Nutcracker”, to me, has always been a big, decadent celebration about the magic of the holiday season. But “Ratcracker on the Hill” is something more. It is a triumph of originality and creativity. Everyone – from the stage technicians to the dancers deserve a standing ovation. The loudest applause should go to Guise for tossing aside the guidebook for a traditional Nutcracker ballet and inventing something so unique, so endearing and so Los Alamos.

Tickets for “Ratcracker” are $20 for adults and $10 for students and seniors. Children age 3 and younger are admitted for free. Tickets are available at the door and at the Fuller Lodge Art Center.

A group of young Dance Arts Los Alamos dancers rehearse for ‘The Ratcracker on the Hill’. Courtesy/DALA

A group of rat dancers get funky during rehearsal for DALA’s ’The Ratcracker on the Hill’. Courtesy/DALA

Rehearsal for ‘Ratcracker on the Hill’. Courtesy/DALA