Nutcrackers are breaking out all over the place right now. CHARLES HUTCHINSON gets into the mood

YORKSHIRE is going nuts over the Nutcracker. Next week, the choice of nut rests between the Russian All Stars' Nutcracker On Ice at the Grand Opera House in York and Nutcracker!, the latest dance with a difference from Matthew Bourne, the exuberant force behind the all-male Swan Lake, from Monday to Saturday at the Grand Theatre, Leeds.

Maybe, you should see both: the Russian All Stars have not visited York since presenting Sleeping Beauty On Ice at the Opera House in 1994, while any Bourne show is an event. Play Without Words, his last production at the National Theatre, has just been nominated for the South Bank Show Award for Dance.

First, let's consider The Nutcracker On Ice, which will be performed next Wednesday at 7.30pm and next Thursday at 2.30pm and 7.30pm as part of a brace of Russian All Stars shows marking the tenth anniversary of the shows' producers, Wild Rose International, in the world of ice. The greatest hits show, Sensational Ice, will follow next Friday at 7.30pm and Saturday at 2.30pm and 7.30pm, with highlights from Cinderella, Sleeping Beauty, Carmen, Peter Pan, Barnum and Phantom Of The Opera.

Director Tony Mercer apologises for the hiatus since the All Stars' 1994 visit. "We sold out when we came there last time, but sadly we've just not been able to fit York into the schedules since then, so we're really looking forward to coming back next week."

Eleven weeks of rehearsal, from seven in the morning until six at night, six days a week, went into preparing the two new shows, from August 30 last year in Telford, and the performers will be away from home for more than a year before the tour concludes.

Yet they could not be more at home than on the ice, and such is the competitive spirit of the ice skaters that there is no chance of a stale performance.

"They are sports people, they've been skating since the age of four, and between them, the 23 skaters have 285 competition medals. They still have that competitive mentality where only first place will do so they always want to do the best they can as they're always looking for the perfect score," says Tony.

"You want to hear the arguments if a partner in a routine gets something wrong, because they still care passionately each night, six months into the tour, and they still won't rest on the last night."

Keep an eye in particular on Ioulia Barsoukova, a skater new to the ranks this season, and no ordinary skater at that. She was a gold medal winner at the 2000 Olympics... in gymnastics.

"She said she'd had enough of being a gymnast and wanted to skate, so over the rehearsal period we've put together the two elements, ice skating and her gymnastic ribbon routines," says Tony. "What she does in The Nutcracker is worth the price of admission alone."

From ice to sweets in Matthew Bourne's Nutcracker!, and it is most definitely a Nutcracker with an exclamation mark.

"It's just some kind of indication to say that this show is something a little different, and besides I like the word Nutcracker. It deserves an exclamation mark!" says Matthew.

"I got the idea from the film musical Oliver!, which did the same."

His Nutcracker! uses the Tchaikovsky score in its full form, but the setting is now an orphanage and a Sweetieland within.

. "There are all these Sweetie characters, Marshmallow Girls, hard Gobstopper Boys, a caddish Knickerbocker Glory like Terry-Thomas an a Humbug bouncer," says Matthew.

Coming next from Matthew? Edward Scissorhands with the full backing of film director Tim Burton and composer Danny Elfman. Can't wait!

York box office: 01904 671818; Leeds box office: 0113 222 6222.

Updated: 09:18 Friday, April 18, 2003