ST. PETERSBURG STATE ICE BALLET: NUTCRACKER ON ICE.

At first it's familiar: Tchaikovsky's score, party guests in petticoats, and second-act divertissements representing different nations. But when the St. Petersburg State Ice Ballet brings its version of The Nutcracker to the Kennedy Center this month, there's one essential difference: a cast that is not en pointe but on blades. Momentum adds magic to the fairy tale.

In 1892 Marius Petipa and Lev Ivanov premiered the original Nutcracker in St. Petersburg. As the twentieth century draws to a close, our fascination with faster cars, faster computers, and faster communication finds an apt metaphor in this version of the Nutcracker--one that literally whirls by. This production, choreographed by Konstantin Rassadin, premiered in 1996. Like the traditional ballet version, it tells the story of the young girl Clara, who receives a Nutcracker doll from Herr Drosselmeier, that miraculously becomes human, battles mice, and transports her to The Kingdom of the Sweets.

What's unusual about the production is Rassadin's blend of ballet and skating vocabularies: axels and salchows meld with port de bras and modified pique arabesques. This mixture reflects Rassadin's background as a graduate of the Vaganova Academy of Russian Ballet and star dancer for the Maryinsky Theater--formerly the Kirov. His dancers are former skating champions and winners of international competitions. As is common for Russian skaters, ballet classes play an important role in their training. Once skaters are accepted into the St. Petersburg State Ice Ballet, they are required to take ballet classes regularly.

On blades, The Nutcracker becomes effervescent, irrepressible. The cast's credentials, combined with a story that takes place in the winter wonderland, make St. Petersburg's production magical. What better way to see snowflakes dance than an ice? Clara, who will be performed by Tatiana Prokofieva and Irina Chakhov-skaya, journeys from a Christmas party through a snowfall and into a magical wonderland; her adventure on blades is easily believable.

Yet, when the Sugar Plum Fairy dances in a tutu with her cavalier, the. combination of ballet costume on skates creates a regal (and sometimes revealing) duet.

"A Nutcracker on ice isn't any sort of brand-new idea," says Kennedy Center publicist Paul Bilyeu. But St. Petersburg's production takes place in the Center's opera house, giving the audience a unique view of an ice show. Most skating performances take place in a rink, but St. Petersburg State Ice Ballet performs in a proscenium theater, meaning that the spectators sit in front of the stage, rather than surrounding it. Rinks are often used for hockey and competitions, and separate the audience from the action with Plexiglas. The proscenium vantage point recalls a traditional ballet performance.

Set and costume designs by Mikhail Shavdatuashvili further associate this show with ballet. The curtain opens on Drosselmeier (Andrei Stroganov) who introduces the key characters to the audience: a Nutcracker, a ballerina, and a Mouse-King came out of the darkness into the spotlights. When they disappear, house guests emerge, traveling through the snow. The plot unfolds.

How did the Kennedy Center create an iced stage in their theater? The stage travels with the show, explains Bilyeu. "Setting up the stage takes twenty-four hours," publicist Angela Potter elaborates from Brooklyn's Center for the Performing Arts, where, a month before their Washington, D.C., performances, the St. Petersburg Ice Ballet appears in for two performances in one day. According to Potter, "10,000 pounds of real crushed ice are poured on the stage and transformed into an ice rink."

Instead of watching the cast from above, spectators sit in front of the performers, better able to see the skaters' jumps and spins. Rassadin makes the most of this vantage point by sprinkling his choreography with unique leaps and lifts. The second act's Oriental Dance sparkles with fast footwork. When six male and six female courtiers dance together in the second act, the stage swells with gliding and spinning skaters.

Ice shows tend to shy away from character development and narratives in favor of abstract dancing and showmanship. It was Torvill and Dean's unique sense of drama and emotion that distinguished them from competitors and captivated audiences during the 1984 Olympics, making them champions. A similar excitement exists in St. Petersburg State Ice Ballet's dancing. Founded in 1967, the company specializes in full-length productions such as Swan Lake, Romeo and Juliet, and The Nutcracker. The thirty-four member company draws on their acting and pantomime skills as much as on their technique and tricks.

During the first act of the St. Petersburg State Ice Ballet's Nutcracker, the costumes recall the 19th-century fashions of Petipa and Ivanov's original production; yet, their footwear is radically altered. Now, more than a hundred years after the first Nutcracker premiered, slick skates bring a version that complements the speed-driven inhabitants of the new millennium.

Kate Mattingly is a New York dance critic for Dance Magazine and has been published in The New York Times, The Village Voice, and Dance Research Journal.