http://www.nytimes.com/2014/12/16/arts/dance/american-ballet-theaters-the-nutcracker-with-cast-changes.html 2014-12-16 00:33:17 American Ballet Theater’s ‘The Nutcracker,’ With Cast Changes Stella Abrera and Misty Copeland make their debuts as Clara in American Ballet Theater’s “The Nutcracker.” === Since 2010, when American Ballet Theater debuted its current production of “ By new felicities, I don’t mean the liberties sometimes taken by performers, like the mouse on Friday night who interpolated into the battle a crane kick from “The Karate Kid”; I mean newly detected aspects of Mr. Ratmansky’s composition, so wonderfully attuned to Tchaikovsky’s score. Were you not having such a good time, you could devote full attention to the development of one two-footed jump: It starts petulant with the children at the party and threads all the way through the ballet to the flowers and bees and the grand pas de deux. This weekend, I realized that Drosselmeyer plows through those children in the same way he later plows through the thrilling and terrifying snowflakes — a connection, perhaps, in the mind of the young heroine, Clara. With choreography this detailed, different casts don’t make a huge difference. It’s a matter of inflections. On Friday and Sunday, the Drosselmeyers of Victor Barbee and Roman Zhurbin both conveyed the dark mystery built into the part. (Drosselmeyer enters the party by joining a hand-holding ring of children, and for a few tense moments, he won’t let go.) But while Mr. Barbee was visibly annoyed by the children and more interested in being the life of the adult party, Mr. Zhurbin was much more likable, a befuddled Mike Myers. (Mr. Zhurbin’s portrayal, in another performance, of the shirtless Arabian in the Land of Sweets is also the most Yul Brynner-like.) The choreography for the Nutcracker Prince and the grown-up Clara is so difficult that the first question is whether the dancers can pull it off. The Claras who debuted in Sunday’s two shows, Stella Abrera and Misty Copeland, both passed the technical challenges, though neither quite captured the role’s affecting ambiguity: the girl in the woman. Ms. Abrera was demure rather than girlish. Hints of release and playfulness remained hints. Ms. Copeland, nearly flawless, brought out a womanly sensuality, her musicality suited to the crystalline exactitude of the solo to the celesta. But her performance stayed cautious, if brightened by notes of exultation and triumph. These came mostly after she had danced, in gracious response to ovations. Although Ms. Copeland is only a soloist by Ballet Theater rankings,