The Great Russian Nutcracker

Tonight, JP and I went to see the Moscow ballet perform the Great Russian Nutcracker at the Henderson Pavilion. Henderson, while officially a separate town, is in the southeast section of the Las Vegas Valley. The Pavilion is by far one of the most awesome performance venues I have ever been in. The seats are wide and comfy, and there is actually enough room for people to get by. The tent structure itself is really neat looking, and for most shows, if you miss getting a seat or don't want to pay for it, you can lounge in the nice cushy grass at the top.

Anyway, I digress. I had never seen the Nutcracker before -- or any live ballet for that matter -- so this was a first for me. The first act was really strange and there was way too much going on for me to focus on what the dancers were actually doing. The second act, however, was a complete turnaround. I actually recognized most of the music, and there were far fewer dancers on stage during most of the songs. Even when there were more, they at least were all doing mostly the same sort of things. There also weren't countless kids running around the stage to distract me as there was during the first act. Did I mention that I get distracted easily?

I would have preferred to skip the first act and go straight to the second. The dancers did some really amazing moves that were really similar to ice skating. I was even getting used to seeing the guys/boys in tights. Can you tell I know nothing about ballet? After seeing the Nutcracker I am still not too keen on ballet, but I still think the performance was pretty excellent as far as ballet goes. Overall, I would give it a 9 out of 10. I doubt I will see it again anytime soon, but for $30 it wasn't a bad deal.