Hindu ‘Nutcracker’ Finds Delight in East-West Blend

The enchantment begins early in Viji Prakash’s version of “The Nutcracker,” seen Saturday at the James Armstrong Theater in Torrance.

The party in Act I takes place not in the customary living room of a middle-class European family, but in what could pass for a Hindu temple. The guests take the wide stance of Bharata Natyam dancers. Wearing ankle bells and attired gorgeously in pleated skirts, they pat bare feet and execute crisp arm gestures. The music is not Tchaikovsky’s.

Sure, there’s a Christmas tree in the background and the plot more or less follows Petipa’s original libretto. But Prakash (a magical Drosselmeyer and Sugar Plum Fairy) has re-conceived the holiday favorite within a southern India-meets-Southern California context.

It works. The tale readily accommodates the changes. The Indian dance style already provides rich mime and choreographic resources.

The Mouse King (Kanti Charugundla) looks like a demon from the “Ramayana.” Clara (Uma Kadekodi) confronts him with the gestures of a heroine from that epic. The Nutcracker (Mythili Prakash) takes the requisite fall, but with a smile. Good always triumphs over evil.

Even so, it’s Hawaiian dancers that Clara sees on her way to the Kingdom of Sweets, where she finds Hershey’s Kisses and chocolate chip cookies.

Babu Parameshwaran’s prerecorded original score incorporates only a fragment of Tchaikovsky’s music (the children’s march) and draws effectively on traditional dance, folk and even rock music for scene-setting, magical transitions and pure dance sequences.

Midway through the second act, however, Prakash appears to lose her nerve. A voice-over begins explaining the story and the dances to come. Clara’s mother even calls her to breakfast at the end. All this indicates unnecessary distrust of Prakash’s storytelling ability.

Mesmera was the guest artist in the sensuous Persian Dance. The other dancers were students in varying grades in Prakash’s school. Some were very impressive. But many could not sustain the production, which bore numerous credits, at its highest imaginative level.