16, 17 Dec 2006. In The Nutcracker, choreography by Thierry Malandain. In spite of the fact that Malandain heads the national choreographic centre of Biarritz, his work is very different from that of most French experimental contemporary choreographers. Trained at the Paris Opera ballet, he is really a classical choreographer. Malandain describes himself more as a renovator than as an innovator. He takes ballets from the past, and reworks them, taking the music and the qualities of his dancers as a guide. He says that each piece he creates is inspired by the original without being a copy of it, and the subject is treated from todays point of view. Because the company comprises only 14 dancers Malandain does not create tutu ballets that need to be staged by a much larger company. Not being experimental, he concludes, I suppose Im considered a bit of an oddity.