Scottish Ballet's The Nutcracker, Edinburgh review: 'sumptuous'

With its adventurous forays into digital dance and contemporary choreography, Scottish Ballet has an international reputation for being forward-thinking. Having one foot pointed into the future doesn’t preclude you from keeping one firmly planted in the past, however, as this sumptuous Christmas ballet proves.

This Nutcracker has its origins in a production forged decades ago by the company’s founder, Peter Darrell, and this was then brushed up and re-worked significantly in 2014 by current artistic director Christopher Hampson and designer Lez Brotherston. The result is a ballet steeped in tradition but sparkling like a new pin.

Despite it being January (or perhaps because it’s January) it’s comforting to see the festive celebrations played out again. Opening with an opulent Christmas party, there’s no shortage of silk finery, ribbons and bows. Adults drink, dance and chat, children run around and make mayhem, while magician Drosselmeyer (played here by a woman, rather than a man) dazzles everyone with her clever illusions.

It’s all the dictionary definition of delightful, and stays in this vein for the next two hours. A trip to the Land of Ice and Snow brings us costumed mice fighting with toy soldiers, then in Act 2 we’re off to the Realm of the Sugar Plum Fairy.

This is all standard fare for The Nutcracker, but what’s worth looking out for here is the re-worked divertissements. Hampson enlisted dancers from the company to work on sections that chimed with their own cultures or interests, giving the Spanish, Chinese, French, English and Russian routines a new spark. Additional choreography has also been created for the children, which is both fun and rooted in reality.

What hasn’t changed, though, is the splendour of it all. Beautifully danced throughout, and with a world-class rendition of Tchaikovsky’s score by the Scottish Ballet Orchestra, it’s a theatrical gift from start to finish.

Until 18 January