The Nutcracker’s always been one of ‘the ballets’ I’ve heard about but never seen.

Learning about it via reading the The Baby-Sitters Club books as a kid and growing up dancing myself, I’ve always wanted to get the chance to experience it, and finally, thanks to this year’s Royal New Zealand Ballet Kiwi twist on a festival classic, I finally got my chance.

RNZB shows are always a spectacle, and this one is no exception. A giant matte painting projection of a classic summer beach landscape greets us as we enter the St James, and the top of the show sets this entire projection in motion; the waves crashing across a distant shore, flowers moving in the breeze, a stylised Buzzy Bee-esque hummingbird-plane fluttering about in the foliage.

There can be challenge in adaptation; some attempts to take overseas works and present them in a ‘Kiwi’ fashion can come off as cloying or insincere, but we open out into an Aotearoa bach in a 1950s-style summer and it feels like coming home.

A giant pōhutakawa tree hangs overhead, and dancers emerge from the water at the back of the stage, carrying snorkels and surfboards. Clara Stahlbaum (Catarina Estévez Collins) and her family and friends are on holiday, about to celebrate Christmas in the most Kiwi of ways. Tchaikovsky’s score (performed by the New Zealand Symphony Orchestra) is iconic; you’ve almost certainly heard some of these numbers before, and the fluttering violins set the scene for a perfect summer’s day.

Clara and her family and friends dance joyfully in the sun; couples paired together in similar outfits, but Clara standing out in bright red among them. Clara’s godmother, Auntie Drosselmeyer (Ana Gallardo Lobaina), returned from overseas, is resplendent in shimmering purple and bestows gifts upon the family, including the wooden nutcracker soldier himself to Clara.

A distinct and welcoming interweaving of Mātauranga Māori gifts us with Koro (Taiaroa Royal), Clara’s grandfather, who I adore watching; aside from grounding us a little more in the Aotearoa of this world with wiri and a hongi, the character just reminds me very fondly of the many koro I know from growing up in Gisborne.

Interweaving indigeneity, the Aotearoa landscape and further Kiwi nostalgia of our world helps decentralise the bits of this ballet that haven’t aged so well. This becomes especially apparent when it comes to the series of culinary tableaus later in the piece.

In a moment of deep theatrical magic, pōhutakawa rise up and up above the stage, and we sink down below it, to the roots of the ancient tree where mysterious creatures lurk. The Mouse King (Calum Gray) and his army of vermin leap onto stage with great quadrobic physicality. This antagonist and his friends tend to have regional-specific variations – in New York they tend to use rats, would you believe – but here in Aotearoa the Mouse King’s crew is an army of grey-and-white-furred weasels, stoats and possums.

The creatures encroach upon Clara, but at last! – the titular Nutcracker (Zacharie Dun) leaps to her aid, striding onto stage with his army of soldiers, and an epic sword battle (fight choreo by Nick Shultz) begins. I won’t spoil the demise of the Mouse King, but it too has the same Kiwiana flair.

Ushered away from the beach into Auntie Drosselmeyer’s plane – the same Buzzy Bee-esque one from the opening projection – we fly across Aotearoa and down to the Southern Alps, where a chorus of snowflakes and their Storm Master (Branden Reiners), flit and leap impressively across the stage in clouds and clouds of shimmering snow.

A kid behind me whispers to her mum, in awe, “Is that real snow?” which I guess is what this is all about, isn’t it – and so concludes Act One.

Act Two finds us in the magnificent Land of Sweets, where the Sugar Plum Fairy (Jemima Scott) and the Nutcracker-turned-Prince show Clara and Auntie Drosselmeyer a stunning tableau of sweet treats.

This part of the ballet when done traditionally is quite controversial – it features deeply stereotyped roles such as “Arabian” and “Chinese” dancers – but once more, the power of adaptation has absolutely improved upon this classicism, as these roles are reimagined as Kiwiana treats; a smorgasboard of hokey pokey ice-creams, a group of lolly cakes, two chocolate fish and a trio of pavlovas with dancing inspired by Anna Pavlova herself.

With a collection of flowers, led by the mighty pōhutakawa (Kirby Selchow), bringing a celebratory floral flair to the rest of the Act, Clara flies home, awakening in the morning surrounded by her friends and family.

The Nutcracker is visually spectacular, and at its heart, incredibly charming. Ty King-Wall’s choreography acts as both a reference to the past history of the show and a yearning towards a joyful and magical Aotearoa, with a dose of the saccharine; a true treat for the audience this festive season.

I would perhaps question some of the sightlines, placing some moments to the extreme far left of the stage does mean that those sitting around me are scratching to catch at least one key point in the narrative, but outside of that foible, the show settles itself very charmingly in as one of the RNZB’s best.