Dance Review by Anna Kisselgoff

A FAIRY TALE BECOMES A WINTRY SPECTACLE

A supernatural creature who loves a mortal too much

HOUSTON, March 22. The Snow Maiden, Ben Stevenson’s latest premiere for the Houston Ballet, is a gamble won on risky terrain, the icy slopes of ersatz Romanticism.

A wintry Russian fairy who melts under the sun’s rays when her love for a mortal warms her heart is not a 20th-century heroine. But... Nina Ananiashvili will be remembered as the childlike Snow Maiden, who flutters her long, delicate fingers to make the snow fall.

Mr. Stevenson... had Ms. Ananiashvili, a guest from the Bolshoi Ballet, in mind for the title role, and she will dance it again when Ballet Theater, co-producer of this $1.2 million three-act ballet, presents the New York premiere of The Snow Maiden... On Saturday night, Ms. Ananiashvili performed with the Houston company at the Wortham Theater Center with Carlos Acosta, the company’s sensational male star...

Like Ballet Theater, the Houston Ballet will present several casts in The Snow Maiden. There were two others over the weekend here that were persuasive and polished. But it is Ms. Ananiashvili, flanked in an onstage triangle by Mr. Acosta and Tiekka Schofield, as the Snow Maiden’s human rival, who made the case for the kind of ballet that Mr. Stevenson has choreographed.

Desmond Heeley’s beautiful decor has created a true spectacle, a winter wonderland of silvery tones, Russian ice palaces and icicles. The ending is so visually stunning that one can well sweep away any reservations about a production...

In a poignant final duet, the Snow Maiden collapses in her beloved’s arms. Ms. Ananiashvili, part Giselle, part Sylphide, was evanescent, visibly slipping away into another world. When Duane Schuler’s lighting turned the stage from silver into dazzling gold, the effect was spectacular...