Mark Morris Dance Group – Mark Morris – The Hard Nut DVD – Clarice Marshall, Rob Besserer

Ballet in two acts from the Th”atre Royal de la Monnaie Brussels. Based on Nutcracker and Mouse King by E.T.A. Hoffmann. For his witty and audacious Nutcracker award-winning choreographer Mark Morris uses Tchaikovsky”s original score but his story is closer to E.T.A. Hoffmann”s more grisly original Nutcracker and Mouse King than the cosier traditional versions of the ballet. It was filmed at the Th””tre Royal de la Monnaie Brussels in 1992 and American cartoonist Charles Burns” pop art set provides the backdrop. As in Hoffmann”s story there is a party at the Stahlbaum”s but this one is set in 60s America with vicious sibling rivalry a stifling marriage and clashing agendas of the campest bunch of guests in town. The Dance of the Snowflakes is a highlight and a Morris masterpiece with men and women in tutus spraying handfuls of snow and sweeping up on pointes. The national dances are funny and inventive with Morris as an Arabic woman in flowing robes. This is Morris at his most entertaining. The Symphony Orchestra and Chorus of the Th””tre Royal de la Monnaie is conducted by the theatre”s Musical Director Sylvain Cambreling.