The Nutcracker.

O'KEEFE CENTRE, TORONTO DECEMBER 21-31, 1995, JANUARY 2-7, 1996; FEBRUARY 21-25, 1996 REVIEWED BY LEWIS HERTZMAN

Though he has made more than forty works since 1979, choreographer James Rather, he has made use of the full range of ballet movement and the additional freedom of modern idioms, as suited to the dancers in the numerous companies with which he has worked. His personal preferences run to dark, psychological themes, but he is just as likely to produce a happy celebration of Mozart or Beethoven or to accept specific commissions. All three modes of working were evident this season.

Artist in residence since 1992, and artistic director as of June 1, Kudelka was set an unusual task last year: to breathe new life into The Nutracker, a holiday chestnut that was no longer drawing crowds. With an ample budget and a large cast, including sixty children from the National Ballet School, he has created a spectacle that overnight became the hottest ticket in the city.

There are many deft touches in the new production, which respects tradition while taking on a fresh look 6y virtue of Kudelka's colorful, clever action. The usual Christmas party has become a rollicking country reception in prerevolutionary Russia, and the court of the Sugar Plum Fairy includes a giant Faberge egg. Moreover, little Marie experiences the adventure with her lively brother, Misha. The whole works extraordinarily well. Thanks to designer Santo Loquasto and associates Mitchell Bloom and Peter Eastman, the ballet is a splendid feast for the eyes. It's also a lot of fun--and not just for the children.

Among several casts Margaret illmann and Martine Lamy sparkled as the Sugar Plum Fairy, Rex Harrington and Robert Tewsley were admirable as the Nutcracker, and Jeremy Ransom and Robert Conn were formidably magical and acrobatic in the role of Nikolai (which replaces that of Drosselmeyer).

A mixed bill in February included two more Kudelka works: the light Musings, a playful response to a Mozart quintet, and a revival of Washington Square, based on the Henry James novelia. The first, created for a Mozart festival in 1991, is mostly a patterned frolic though it does contain some strong reflective moments expressed by Karen Kain and Serge Lavoie. The second, originally a workshop piece, was the composition that virtually launched Kudelka's career as choreographer in 1979.

More the ballet equivalent of a short story than of a novel, Washington Square seems too compressed to do justice to its principal characters, the shy heiress Catherine Sloper and her inconstant suitor, Morris Townsend. But the role of Catherine, who changes from fragile to bitterly resolved in the course of the action, was clearly etched by Lamy. And Conn fully expressed the ambiguities of Morris's character. With a darkly dramatic score by Michael Conway Baker, the piece packed a punch at its premiere (which people still remember). Fourteen years after its last performance, it still does.