Oregon Ballet Theatre Tickets

Once again, the Oregon Ballet Theater has given us a lovely Christmas present with "The Nutcracker". No expense is spared with sets or costumes and the dancers were exactly what they should be for a production like this. The audience was filled with little girls in patent leather shoes and Christmas dresses of satin and velvet. It's one of the few events that Portland "dresses up" for. Kudos to the OBT for their color-blind casting. I greatly miss the live orchestra in the pit and this is the only reason I didn't give the 5th star. Music from speakers just doesn't feel the same.

Loved the dancing, stage and costumes. Beautiful. I would suggest going during a live Orchestra performance if possible. The sound system sounds like a loud boom box. VERY poor sound. Would think that this type of venue - Keller Auditorium - would upgrade their system. Other than that I loved it.

I am a sucker for the ballet. i love everything about it. The beautiful dance itself, the costumes, the orchestra etc. the Oregon Ballet Nutcracker just didnt do it for me. The first Half of the show children were frolicking and dancing about, which was adorable, but the segment was just too long.. the second half was a little better. There were definitely some dancers that had a lot of talent. However those dancers seemed to only have the spotlight for a minute or so while the not as talented dancers had the spotlight for a lot longer. The show seemed to end abruptly. It felt unfinished. Sort of like when youre watching a movie and it ends with the main character waking up, and the viewer learns it was all a dream. i had that disappointing feeling at the end of the show. And i saw not orchestra nor did it sound like there was a live orchestra! Im sad I spent 300 bucks.

I have attended Nutcracker perfomances in the past and have enjoyed them. This performace was subpar, definitely scaled back and water-downed. I am thinking it might have something to do with the economy. In the beginning of the program I questioned if I was at the right performance as I watched amateur children run around the stage instead of professional dancing. I also did not like that two young children, a boy and girl, were paired up romantically (maybe affectionately is more accurate, but still). Those roles would have been more suited for teen talent, not grade-school children. I doubt I will attend another Nutcracker while we're still in "recovery." I will wait for better economic times so I may enjoy more of a quality performance.

Oregon Ballet Nutcracker was Wonderful; a beautiful presentation. Nice dancing and great scenes.

We thoroughly enjoyed the Nutcracker last night, but the low point of the evening was the recorded music. Our girls play string instruments and they were looking forward to hearing the live music and were terribly disappointed to hear it canned. There are several challenging and beautiful parts to the Nutcracker Suite and it would have been so much more amazing to be able to hear it live. The costumes and sets were gorgeous, we loved Candy Cane and his amazing athleticism. It will be an annual event.... but we hated not having real music!

I have been to several Nutcracker performances including those put on by OBT. This year was my favorite performance. I liked the version, costuming and dances very much! Excellent!!!!

The strength of Kathi Martuza, the Sugarplum Fairy, alone is incredible and worth seeing.

It was a great show, my daughter was in awe the whole time. She now wants to work toward being the next sugar plum fairy. She is 7. It was fun holiday activity.

Lovely sets, beautiful dancing. Wish it was live music, but overall, it was a very wonderful experience

This event was so absolutely worth the $100.00 tickets and the train ride up from Eugene for both myself and my son. We have seen the Nutcracker Ballet now for three years in a row, and we have watched it sometimes twice a year by different ballet companies. This one was so wonderful and sweet and for my six year old son, there was nothing scary for his sweet, sensitive nature. I was a ballet dancer for many years, and I can say, with some wisdom behind my words, that the choreography was really wonderful. I wept at the beauty of the snowflakes as they danced, and throughout the entire show, I felt an incredible gratefulness to the dancers and all who work behind the scenes for bringing us this spectacular rendition of the Nutcracker ballet. Thank you so much...it will now be a memory we will treasure for many years.

THE BALLET WAS WONDERFUL. I FELT THE PRODUCTION WAS ABBREVIATED AND I MISSED THE DANCING BEAR AND OTHER THINGS. I ALSO MISSED SOME OF THE PROPS AND LIVE MUSIC. HOWEVER, I GO TO SEE BALLET AND THAT WAS GREAT. GOOD WORK.

The auditorium was silent except for the wonderful music. The only sound from the stage was the occasional slap of a ballet slipper. What was interesting in this silence was the participation of the audience with collective gasps at the height of the leaps or the laughter at the intended " naughty" antics of the children. The audience was very much immersed in the story unfolding on the stage. The enjoyment was obvious.

Fantastic event! I do not know how to describe the awe of watching the talented individuals dance and communicate the Nutcracker story. I highly recommend the Oregon Ballet Theater to anyone interested in watching very talented ballet performers.

Great. The only thing missing was a live orchestra! Why was there not an orchestra?!?!?! It would've made the show so much better.

Overall the ballet was amazing, but I have to say that the children suprised me. I wasn't expecting for them to be so good and well trained! Being a dancer myself I can appreciate the hard work that was put into this show. Bravo!

Attending The Nutcracker has been our family Christmas tradition for many years. Last year, performances were stellar and even the balconies were filled with eager aficionados shouting Bravo! after Bravo! for everything from the opening act, to each soloist, to the final curtain. Not so, this past Friday, where we witnessed a drudgery of lead-footed characters as abysmally painful to watch as it apparently was to present. George Balanchine was certainly spinning in his grave over this one. It would be kind to say that the dancers were uniformly lackadaisical; but the uniformity stops there. From the company, to the soloists, one can best describe the piece as a chaotic dance of the zombies. Neoclassical ballet is a ballet style that uses traditional ballet vocabulary but is less rigid than the classical ballet. For example, dancers often dance at more extreme tempos and perform feats that are more technical. Technical feats? Nonexistent. Attitude – lethargic at best. Ballet d'action involves expression of character and emotion through dancers' bodies and faces, rather than through elaborate costumes and props. The costumes and props were there, the expression and emotion, not so much. Spacing in neoclassical ballet is usually more modern or complex than in classical ballet. Complexities; not awkward, sluggish stumbling. Although organization in neoclassical ballet is more varied, the focus on structure is a defining characteristic. I have seen more organizational structure and dance talent exhibited at a drunken line dance at a cowboy bar than I experienced Friday night from OBT. They should take Mr. Balanchine's name off the program; this was nowhere near representative of his genius. Clearly, the organizers of this debacle are fraudulently trading on Mr. Balanchine’s longstanding reputation for creative excellence as the father of neoclassical ballet – it would be eminently more honest of the producers and director of this piece to sully their own names for the travesty they presented. Speaking of genius, whoever decided to do away with the orchestra for the sake of saving money, have certainly experienced a self-fulfilling prophecy of a near-empty house as reward for their genius. With no live music, the smart people stayed away in droves and fortunately missed the dancers’ bored-to-tears flailing about. From our box seats, we could see empty row after empty row below us, and a closed, empty balcony behind. From the comments overheard at intermission, apparently many did not know of the change to recorded music; were disappointed both by the lack of orchestral support and dismal performances; and voiced an almost uniform intention NOT to return next year. We definitely will not return, and have lost a treasured family tradition. Portland has lost a legacy. Sad. Although, there was this one bright moment in the lobby when an aspiring 8-year old ballerina exclaimed, "Just wait until I can be in the ballet momma, I'll be much better than those guys." Out of the mouths of babes!

The lack of live music, dull costumes, children on stage far to long was a great disapointment. The two year old behind us that fussed the entire time did not help. We will not be back. 6 from Bend.

The performance was good overall. The stage was great with decent performances by the dancers. The Japanese soloist as the Sugar Plum Fairy was professionally magnificent but, the surrounding performers were average. The enthusiastic dancers were energetic with less than stellar discipline. If they continue their performances with increased skill and disciplined form the show will improve to an experienced eye. To my family's inexperienced eye the show was definitely satisfying and fun with alot to enjoy.

The Nutcracker was amazing. My 5 year old daughter was in Ahh. The only thing missing was the live orchestra. That would have made it even better. Can the men wear something other than those tights????? My daughter thought they were naked...... Otherwise, it was an amazing show..