MAGIC: Front to back. Nicole McCreedy, Marc Goldberg and Tanya Fütter in The Nutcracker Picture: SUSANNE HOLBAEK

Johannesburg

• The Nutcracker by Mzansi Productions
• Music: Tchaikovsky
• Choreography and production: David Gouldie, Adèle Blank and Esther Nasser
• Cast: Kitty Phetla, Gustin Makgeledisa, Andrea Boon, Bradley Peter, Craig Arnolds, Yarisha Singh and others
• Scenery, costume and design: Andrew Botha
• Lighting: Simon King
• Where: The Lyric Theatre, Gold Reef City
• When: November 26 to December 6

The irrational loathing of rugby is a pre-democratic South Africa hangover. But I can't really explain the ballet thing. I think it has to do with how exacting, delicate, precise and European an art it is. How it requires the dancer to go against the body's natural inclination. There are just too many rules.

So, I am to dance/ballet reviewing what the Wilbur Smith reader is to literature.

But nature has blessed us with two daughters who would actually like to live in a ballet, wear tutus to all social occasions, including funerals, and who aim to marry princes in tights.

And that is how I came to find myself unexpectedly enchanted one cold and rainy Saturday afternoon by this delightful production of an over 100-year-old Christmas classic, with lovely South African flourishes invigorating the choreography, décor and costumes.

There is no European winter and snow; instead, the stage comes alive in a burst of Namaqualand daisies, Stone Age cave paintings, proteas, strelitzias and baobab trees.

Choreographers Adèle Blank and David Gouldie, who were nominated for the 2008 Gauteng MEC Awards for their work on this production, have opened up the dance, bringing quirky elements of humour, drama and energy to the piece.

The story of Clara and Dr Drosselmeyer, a family friend who gives her a magical nutcracker soldier (represented here by a Dyembe drum) as a Christmas gift remains essentially the same.

The part of Drosselmeyer is taken by the commanding and graceful Kitty Phetla who is the perfect guide for Clara's subsequent magical adventures.

This is a wonderfully coherent company on stage, with each dancer, no matter how small their part, capturing the drama and magic of the moment. Particularly impressive were Phetla, Gwen Barry as Clara, Andrea Boon, who is a delight as Clara's tipsy mother, Bradley Peter as Clara's irritating brother Fritz, and Yarisha Singh as a mischievous maid. Craig Arnolds made a gorgeous Nutcracker-turned Sun God. Arnolds is a strong, controlled and highly watchable dancer. The cast of little people dancers who decorate the stage also bring a lovely festive atmosphere to it all.

Andrew Botha's costumes and sets, which are really beautiful, deserve special mention. From the side panel "totems" with buffalo heads and Madiba's face, to the magical baobab tree festooned with proteas and strelitzias as Christmas baubles Botha's visions are integral to the overall South Africanisation of this story. His costumes are inventive and unusual. For once, I was jealous that audiences in Gauteng would have more time to experience this little festive season gem than we had in Cape Town. And, I think I've changed my mind about dance. This is the perfect antidote to the uptight and the twee.