I got the City Ballet NUTCRACKER on tape, and it's so much better than the filmed version made in the 1990s. I continually marvel at Balanchine's decisions and especially his direction of the children: the business given to Marie's naughty brother Fritz is inventive, constantly in character, and often very funny. I love the choreography of the March at the beginning of the Christmas party, where he desperately tried to get a partner and every little girl avoids him; he ends up being partnered by his mother. The children in the City Ballet production are consistently well-cast, and the kids on the broadcast seem perfect. I also like the way the party covers a time span of 2-3 hours in about 30 minutes, from gifts, to diversions, to toasts, all primarily staged as social dancing. I first saw the production in 1966, and my memory of it , for the next 15+ years until I saw it again, was the dreamlike image of Marie gliding on a doll's bed out of the house and into a snow storm. It was magical in 1966 and it still moves. I've seen so many productions of this ballet, but no other production seems to me so right in nearly every moment.
