Crowds have two versions of holiday ballet to pick from

"The Dance of the Sugar Plum Fairy" from Tchaikovksy's "The Nutcracker" will be heard often this holiday season. The question is whether this town is big enough for two "Nutcracker" ballets.

The first performance will be the Moscow Ballet's "Great Russian Nutcracker" at the Show Me Center Nov. 25. This untraditional version of the ballet, also performed here in 2002, winds up in the Land of Peace of Harmony instead of the Land of the Sweets and ends with a prayer for peace. Auditions for local dancers were held in Carbondale, Ill., in September.

The second "Nutcracker," the one familiar to most audiences, will be performed by the Minnesota Ballet Dec. 19 and 20. The company will give three public performances and two free performances for area students. Seventy young local dancers will have roles when the ballet is presented at Academic Auditorium. Their rehearsals are being conducted by Jackson Robertson of Dance Extensions in Jackson and Tania Statler of the Academy of Dance Arts in Cape Girardeau.

The Minnesota Ballet "Nutcracker" is a fund raiser for the Community Counseling Center Foundation.

Larry Essner, the foundation president, said the organization has been planning the event for about a year and a half. When he checked with Show Me Center manager David Ross early this year, the venue had no plans to book a "Nutcracker" performance during the holidays. Ross didn't expect the Moscow Ballet to return for a second straight year.

"We are somewhat considerate of other things going on in the area," he said. "We were not going to buy a competing ballet or competing 'Nutcracker.'"

But when the Moscow Ballet called later on asking to promote the performance at the Show Me Center itself, Ross agreed.

The Moscow Ballet is promoting the event itself, paying the Show Me Center a fee and percentage of the gate. "I have to take money coming in the door," Ross said. "I didn't go out and seek the competition."

The foundation knew there was a chance this conflict could occur, Essner said. "I talked to Ross. He had to do his thing to rent the Show Me Center."

Essner thinks the Minnesota Ballet version has advantages over the Moscow Ballet's: The probability that more local dancers will be involved, a setting in Academic Auditorium more suited to presenting ballet, and the fact that the money raised will benefit local people with mental illnesses.

Another factor is that the Minnesota Ballet will perform the traditional Christmas entertainment near the holiday while the Moscow Ballet performance is two days before Thanksgiving.

Ross didn't question the Moscow Ballet's wish for the early date. "There's a lot of people a whole lot smarter than I am," he said. "When they give us a date they want to play, I try real hard not to talk them out of it."

Ross said the great amount of community participation the counseling foundation elicits will help it sell tickets. "They'll do well from that."

The Minnesota Ballet's previous fund-raiser for the Community Counseling Center in 1997 sold 3,000 tickets over four public performances.

sblackwell@semissourian.com

335-6611, extension 182

Want to go?

What: Moscow Ballet's "Great Russian Nutcracker"

When: 7:30 p.m. Nov. 25

Where: Show Me Center, Cape Girardeau

Admission: $19.25-$39.25

Tickets are on sale at Schnucks, For Your Entertainment and Disc Jockey Records.

What: "The Nutcracker"

When: 7:30 p.m. Dec. 19, noon Dec. 20, 4 p.m. Dec. 20.

Where: Academic Auditorium, Southeast Missouri State University

Admission: $19 lower level, $25 balcony. Tickets will go on sale Oct. 27 at Schnucks and at the Performing Arts Box Office (651-2265).