Riverside Ballet Arts will perform David Allan's version of Tchaikovsky's Nutcracker at the Moreno Valley Performing Arts Center on December 21st and 22nd. This is a new venue for the community and the sixty-year-old troupe. Traditionally, they have performed the popular Christmas ballet at the Landis Performing Arts Center at RCC.
The Nutcracker was first performed in 1892 in St. Petersburg, Russia. The two-part Ballet gained popularity in the United States in the middle of the 20th Century. It has been performed thousands of times, in total and in part, by the best dancers on the biggest stages as well as local troupes in tiny theaters. The Nutcracker is part of our holiday lexicon, and the images and sounds of the Ballet are deeply entrenched in our Christmas traditions.
Let me state that I hold no ill will toward Live Nation, the FOX Theatre, Inland Pacific Ballet, its dancers, or the guest performers who joined the troupe for this season's Nutcracker campaign. The Fox is a destination venue, and the capital provided by the deal between Riverside and Live Nation saved the FOX theater. It was a jewel of our historic downtown district, an important part of cinema history, and an architectural treasure that was in disrepair.
That being said, BRAVA and its official school, Riverside Ballet Arts, is a prestigious institution whose alumni include dancers from some of the premier institutions around the country. Certainly, the production that sustained a decades-long run at the Landis could produce a show worthy of a weekend at the FOX. Colette Lee, founding president of the Riverside Arts Academy and local arts advocate, said, "Our kids from our city should be performing at our theatre."
I agree with Collette in principle. Local institutions should be given a preference for local spaces as long as the quality of the product is similar. I don't think there is an "at fault" to be named, but a bias toward investing in local institutions is not too onerous of a request.
I feel the solution is out there. It can't happen "right now," but we need a real, city-run performance space that could host the Ballet, the Symphony, the Community Players, and whatever other local institutions need that space. It could be rented out at market value when not in use, but it would be run with an explicit preference for local groups. Kathy Allavie, a long-time advocate for the arts in Riverside, echoed that sentiment, saying, "It may be that there isn’t something around for the next few years. I don’t know that for a fact, but I’d like to think we could solve this problem by next year. Riverside needs better performing spaces."
All that was the "short story long" expression of our holiday mission here at the Gazette. Support Riverside businesses and Institutions. In this case, that means heading to Moreno Valley to watch David Allan's Nutcracker, performed by an incredible roster heavy with Riverside-based dancers. The theater in Moreno Valley is new, and modern, and beautiful and the show will not lack anything for its relocation.
