http://www.nytimes.com/2014/12/20/arts/dance/nutcracker-rouge-is-more-naughty-than-nice.html 2014-12-19 22:00:25 ‘Nutcracker Rouge' Is More Naughty Than Nice Austin McCormick’s “Nutcracker Rouge,” playing at XIV, gives the ubiquitous holiday show a sexy, burlesque edge. === Around this time of year, versions of “The Nutcracker” are as ubiquitous as holiday sales. Are you really saving money? Do you really need to see another “Nutcracker”? Austin McCormick’s “Nutcracker Rouge,” performed on Thursday at XIV, is an oddity, and not only because of its kinky edge. This coming-of-age story delicately balances burlesque, circus and baroque with ballet as its through-line. In the setting, it’s as if the court of Louis XIV is transplanted to a nightclub, and the demure main character, Marie-Claire — a Francophile twist on Marie and Clara — gradually finds her bliss, shedding layers of clothing along the way. The land of the sweets is the land of sex. Yet this unmasking of a young woman’s secret desires is somehow less about a sexual awakening than it is a makeover. “The Nutcracker” is the wrapping, but when you open the present, there she is: Cinderella. In Soon Marie-Claire is taken under their tutelage; after making her way through a treacherous winter storm alongside several corseted dancers, she ends up in the Kingdom of the Sweets, where Cherries (Katrina Cunningham and Lea Helle) remove their skimpy red tops to reveal pasties, and the “Turkish Delight,” set to Tchaikovsky’s Arabian number, turns out to be an erotic pole dance for Allison Ulrich and Steven Trumon Gray. In “Candy Cane,” the remarkable Before Marie-Claire transforms into the sexy Sugar Plum Fairy, she discovers the world of dominatrixes, which sends her libido into overdrive. In the grand pas de deux, her Nutcracker Prince, a strapping Todd Hanebrink, appears. Wrapping her limbs around his torso — he’s her pole — they twine their bodies together, rolling on the floor while melding lascivious sexual positions with overhead lifts. Just as in the ballet, he catches her in a triumphant fish dive. All along, Ms. Careless, basking in her newfound sexual liberation, is the charm. Everyone loves a dirty girl.