Review: Smuin Contemporary Ballet, ‘The Christmas Ballet,’ Lesher Center, Walnut Creek, Opening Performance November 22, 2025

Fill the snow-bags, hang the star-drop, fluff the tinsel, and steam the capes! It is time once more for Smuin Contemporary Ballet’s effervescent showcase, The Christmas Ballet. Act I:  The Classical Christmas features a dozen contemporary and classical ballets.  Act 2: The Cool Christmas expands genres to include musical theater, tap, jazz, Irish Celtic dance and even a bit of hula.  The proceedings feel decidedly West Coast.  Designers Douglas Schmidt (Scenic), Sandra Woodall (Costume) and Michael Oesch (Lighting) lean in to the sparkling lights and winter accessories of the holiday season in a tropical climate, especially in the second  act, where raucous red satin with sequin details, along with clever set pieces and props bring a flashier, more hip vibe.

Despite having been conceived 30+ years ago, The Christmas Ballet is kept perennially fresh through its ever-expanding collection of short dances and varied annual editions. For 2025, three new ballets now join the impressive and diverse collection of almost 120 holiday ballets created through the years. Michael Smuin (1934-2007), who founded Smuin Ballet in 1994, is credited not only with the overall concept but with choreographing half the pieces in any year’s version.

The task of selecting and sequencing dances for The Christmas Ballet is like that of choosing specific ornaments, from an overfull box, to decorate your tree. Each is special for its own reasons, and not all can be displayed at once.  There is a feeling of abundance as ten dancers fill the stage leaping and spinning, lifting and catching one another.  In a year when the news cycle seems relentlessly heavy, Artistic Director Amy Seiwert has ,for our enjoyment, wisely selected primarily uplifting, heartfelt classical works and fun-loving romps.

Premiering in the 2025 Edition is Seiwert’s Ma Navu, a contemporary ballet for a man and a woman, performed to Kitka Women’s Vocal Ensemble’s recording of the Israeli folk song meaning “how beautiful” in Hebrew. Shania Rasmussen and Dominic Barrett make a striking couple. Evoking the white figures on blue backgrounds of ancient Greek vases, their curved arms and lunging figures mirror and complement each other while intensifying the sacred soaring sound of the women’s song. A collective audible expression of awe accompanied their final sequence which finds Barrett gallantly partnering Rasmussen, who moves from toe-balanced splits, through a daringly-tilted lift, to a tender closing in which she is enveloped by her partner now on bended knee, as two become one.

Dominic Barrett and Shania Rasmussen in Ma Navu choreographed by Amy Seiwert. Smuin's Christmas Ballet. Photo by Maximilian Tortoriello

My Gift, Your Presence (world-premiere), by choreographer Miles Thatcher, is a brief but touching story ballet which elicited genuine tears from my seatmate. It teaches the lesson that rather than the material presents our friends and lovers may offer us, it is their physical and emotional presence in our lives which is the true gift.  With lyrical poignance, Tess Lane portrays the role of a young woman whose female partner (Thatcher continues his ongoing project to subtly queer ballet) keeps appearing at the door with tone-deaf and impersonal Christmas gifts, which Lane quickly rejects. After sending the girlfriend away a third time, Lane finds herself full of feeling for her now absent companion.

Tess Lane in My Gift, Your Presence choreographed by Myles Thatcher. Smuin's Christmas Ballet. Photo by Maximiliian Tortoriello

Julia Adam can be counted on for her clever settings and comedic sensibility. Lesher audiences had the pleasure of her choreography earlier this November with Diablo Ballet’s The Nutcracker Suite set in the mid-20^th Century at San Francisco’s Fairmont Hotel. The Sweater, Adam’s first Smuin assignment, is an ice-skating comedy, sans skates or ice.  With long gliding strides, her weight forward on the balls of her feet, her trailing leg lifted gracefully, Tessa Barbour conjures a young skater.  Eager for speed and prone to getting in dust-ups, Barbour acts the part with contagious exuberance. Mugging her way through some plot twists and accommodating a series of props with a clown’s ease, Barbour is charming.  I notice male dancer Yuri Rogers will dance the role in some performances. I am curious to see how he handles the character development and how my own gender assumptions impact my feelings about The Sweater at a future performance.

Tessa Barbour in The Sweater choreographed by Julia Adam. Smuin's Christmas Ballet. Photo by Maximiliian

Throughout this face-paced dance sampler, I find myself impressed by the depth and breadth of the company members’ skills (gifts?). With 28 dances on the bill, one cannot convey the myriad highlights, but I would be remiss if I didn’t mention the aching beauty of Maggie Carey in Seiwert’s The River, performed to Joni Mitchell’s emotional break-up song.

Tessa Barber draws well-deserved mid-performance applause, for her fleet-footed rhythmic Irish Celtic dance to The Chieftans’s Bells of Dublin.  The stillness of her upper body, the precision and swiftness of her percussive feet and the openness of her face speak to her assurance. 

With his soaring leaps, arms thrown skyward, AL Abraham echoes the stately grandeur of the operatic arrangement of the Spanish carol La Virgen Lava Pañales as recorded by world-famous tenor Placido Domingo. 

Claire Buehler captivates me with her every assignment.  Matching each other’s lines to perfection, she and João Sampaio, as cherished partners, embody strength and grace in Nicole Haskins’s Peaceful Prayer to a Chanticleer recording of “Prayer for Ukraine.”  Dancing with bravado, regarding the audience with poise, Bueler arrives into assured arabesques time and again in Rex Wheeler’s Excelsis.

Claire Buehler and João Sampaio in Peaceful Prayer choreographed by Nicole Haskins. Smuin's Christmas Ballet. Photo by Maximiliian Tortoriello

While the company shines brightly in their wide-ranging group assignments from Michael Smuin’s hot-jazz Christmas in New Orleans to the nuanced partnering and explosive jumps of Wheeler’s We Three Kings, my favorite ensemble piece is Seiwert’s The Twelve Days of Christmas.  Both the choreography and the performance are showstoppingly good. Partridges, calling birds, French hens, and swans a swimming, overlap with boughs of holly, and Rudolph the Red-nosed Reindeer, in a mash up of carols turned frantic charades game as the dancers create images to mimic the antic vocal stylings of a cappella pop group Straight No Chaser. 

This merriment is best shared with others, so grab a friend or family member and treat yourself this December.  While I caught the first of 20 performances, The Christmas Ballet tours the Bay with performances offered at Carmel-By-The-Sea (Dec. 5-6), Mountain View (Dec. 11-14) and San Francisco (Dec 18-28).  

Review by Jen Norris, published November 23, 2025.

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Production Credits

SMUIN'S THE CHRISTMAS BALLET

2025 Edition

Founder Michael Smuin

Artistic Director Amy Seiwert

Lighting Design Michael Oesch

Costume Design Sandra Woodall

Scenic Design Douglas Schmidt

SMUIN Contemporary Ballet Company Dancers:

AL Abraham, Tessa Barbour, Dominic Barrett, Isabel Borges, Claire Buehler, Jacopo Calvo, Maggie Carey, Cameron Cofrancesco, Gabrielle Collins, Ricardo Dyer, Cassidy Isaacson, Tess Lane, Marc LaPierre, Shania Rasmussen, Wen Na Roberston & Yuri Rogers

Program

ACT 1: THE CLASSICAL CHRISTMAS

All choreography by Michael Smuin unless otherwise noted.

MAGNIFICAT

Music: J.S. Bach Recording: Gachinger Kantorei Stuttgart, Bach-Collegium Stuttgart; Helmuth Rilling, Cond.

ZITHER CAROL

Music: Traditional Czech Recording: Amor Artis Chamber Choir; Johannes Somary, Cond.

FANTASIA

Choreography: Nicole Haskins

Music: Traditional Recording: James Galway

PEACEFUL PRAYER

Choreography: Nicole Haskins

Music: Prayer for Ukraine by Oleksandr Konysky and Mykola Lysenko Recording: Chanticleer

VENI, VENI, EMMANUEL

Music: Traditional French Recording: Taverner Consort, Choir and Players; Andrew Parrott, Dir.

GRATIAS

Music: W.A. Mozart Recording: London Symphony Orchestra & Chorus; Sir Colin Davis, Cond.

FOR UNTO US A CHILD IS BORN

Music: G.F. Handel (from Messiah) Recording: Philharmonia Baroque Orchestra; Nicolas McGegan, Cond.

EXCELSIS

Choreography: Rex Wheeler

Music: Antonio Vivaldi (from Gloria in D Major) Recording: Choir of King’s College, Cambridge and the Academy of Ancient Music, Stephen Cleobury, Cond

WE THREE KINGS

Choreography: Rex Wheeler

Music: John Henry Hopkins Jr. Recording: City of Prague Philharmonic Orchestra

LA VIRGEN LAVA PAÑALES

Music: Traditional Spanish Recording: Placido Domingo

SLEIGH RIDE

Choreography: Amy Seiwert

Music: Sergei Prokofiev (from Lieutenant Kijé) Recording: St. Petersburg Philharmonic Orchestra; Yuri Temirkanov, Dir.

DONA NOBIS PACEM

Choreography: Amy Seiwert

Music: Traditional Recording: YoYo Ma with the Pikes Peak Ringers

THE GLOUCESTERSHIRE WASSAIL

Music: Traditional English Recording: The Waverly Consort; Michael Jaee, Dir.

MA NAVU (World Premiere) Dedicated to Greg Kayne

Choreography: Amy Seiwert

Music: Yossi Spivak Recording: Kitka Women’s Vocal Ensemble, arranged by Shira Cion JOY TO THE WORLD

Choreography: Nicole Haskins

Music: Traditional English Recording: Philadelphia Orchestra; Eugene Ormandy, Dir

ACT 2: THE COOL CHRISTMAS

All choreography by Michael Smuin unless otherwise noted.

CHRISTMAS IN NEW ORLEANS

Music: Richard Sherman & Joe Van Winkle Recording: Louis Armstrong with Benny Carter’s Orchestra

SANTA BABY

Music: Joan Javits, Phil Springer, Tony Springer Recording: Eartha Kitt

SILVER BELLS

Choreography: Rex Wheeler

Music: Jay Livingston & Ray Evans Recording: Dean Martin

JINGLE BELLS MAMBO

Choreography: Val Caniparoli

Music: Jingle Bells’ - J.S. Pierpont arranged by Juan Esquivel; ‘Mambo Jambo’ Perez Prado arranged by Enoch Light

MY GIFT, YOUR PRESENCE (World Premiere)

Choreography: Myles Thatcher

Music & Recording: Sujan Steven

DROOPY LITTLE CHRISTMAS TREE

Music & Recording: Benny Martin

CHRISTMAS ISLAND

Music: Lyle Moraine Recording: Leon Redbone

THE SWEATER (World Premiere)

Choreography: Julia Adam

Music: Ross Bagdasarian & J. Pierpont Recording: Bob Kames

THE TWELVE DAYS OF CHRISTMAS

Choreography: Amy Seiwert

Music: Traditional English Christmas Carol Recording: Straight No Chaser

RIVER

Choreography: Amy Seiwert

Music & Recording: Joni Mitchell

BELLS OF DUBLIN

Music & Recording: The Chieftains

SNOW DAY!

Choreography: Rex Wheeler

Music: Leroy Anderson and Mitchell Parish Recording: Johnny Mathis with Percy Faith and His Orchestra

WHITE CHRISTMAS

Choreography: Ben Needham-Wood Music: Irving Berlin Recording: The Drifters