For some it's the anti-Nutcracker; for others it's one gifted dancer's spirited take on a holiday tradition. Either way, it's "The Hard Nut," the Mark Morris Dance Group's unique and joyful interpretation of the Nutcracker ballet, which they'll perform Dec. 9-18 in Zellerbach Hall in Berkeley.

"Tremulously heartwarming" the London Guardian wrote after the troupe performed "The Hard Nut" during a sold-out United Kingdom engagement in 2004, while the London Sunday Independent praised its "verve, wit (and) arresting beauty"

Merry episodes of nol mischief and comic characterizations share the spotlight with the warm and tender love story at the center of Tchaikovsky's score. Morris combines popular, modern and classical dance choreography to imbue E.T.A. Hoffmann's original "The Nutcracker and the Mouseking" fairy tale with new life.

"It's really the antidote to the 'Nutcracker'" said June Omurra, who will dance the part of Fritz, the irrepressible little brother, in the work.

Part of the gender-bending in the work, which has men dancing on pointe. "Traditionally, it's always women dancing the part of the flowers and snowflakes but in reality flowers are male and female and snowflakes are neutral. It doesn't make sense to just give those roles to women."

For the eighth season, Cal Performances Director Robert Cole will conduct Tchaikovsky's complete Nutcracker ballet score while members of the Berkeley Symphony Orchestra and the UC Berkeley Women's Chorale, under the direction of Mark Sumner, will perform.

"By definition, classic ballets do not lose their appeal -- but the parodies and rewrites they spawn are often quick to date," observed the London Guardian. "Mark Morris's rude, funny and romantic version of the Nutcracker is, however, already 13 years old, and parts of it look even sparkier and more resonant than at its premiere."

Unlike Alexandre Dumas' familiar bowdlerized version of the Nutcracker story for the 1892 Petipa/Ivanov ballet, "The Hard Nut" garners its title from the fairy tale plot of Hoffmann's original story-within-a-story of "The Nutcracker and the Mouseking."

In the story, the evil Rat Queen, who has disfigured young Princess Pirlipat, offers an all-but-impossible challenge: The girl will regain her beauty if a young man can crack, with his teeth, a carefully concealed "hard nut."

Drosselmeier, the kind family friend, searches the world over and eventually finds the nut at which point a suitor who is up to the challenge emerges.

When "The Hard Nut" premiered in Belgium in 1991 as Morris' parting gift to his European hosts before leaving his post as director of dance at the Theatre Royal de la Monnaie, the national opera house of Belgium, the production was greeted with unanimous critical acclaim and uproarious applause.

Cal Performances presented the West Coast premiere of "The Hard Nut" in December 1996 at Zellerbach Hall, and has re-mounted the production every year with the exception of 2002 and 2004, when the production was presented at the Brooklyn Academy of Music and at London's Sadler's Wells. The London critical acclaim went deeper than praise for choreography and design, "Morris's eye for children's inner lives (is) piercingly acute," the Telegraph hailed.

The cast of "The Hard Nut" retains many of the familiar Nutcracker characters in addition to G.I. Joes and Barbie dolls of a 1960s American household.

The Mark Morris Dance Group will celebrate 25 years of extraordinary dance and music this season with more than 100 performances on two continents, highlighted by five world premieres. The group first came to Cal Performances in 1987, and since 1994 it has returned every year.

Director, choreographer and dancer Mark Morris grew up in Seattle and began his professional career dancing for an eclectic group of companies. In 1980, he formed the Mark Morris Dance Group, now one of America's leading dance companies.

Its talent was recognized abroad, and in 1988 Morris and his company accepted positions as director of dance and national dance company of Belgium, where they remained for three years. Morris's time in Brussels was a highly creative period as he completed three acclaimed evening-length works: "The Hard Nut"; "L'Allegro, il Penseroso ed il Moderato"; and "Dido & Aeneas."

In 1990, with Mikhail Baryshnikov, Morris founded the White Oak Dance Project. The following year, he was named a fellow of the MacArthur Foundation. In addition to choreographing more than 100 works for the Mark Morris Dance Group, he has also set new pieces on the San Francisco Ballet, Paris Opera Ballet and the American Ballet Theatre. In fall 2001, the Dance Group opened the Mark Morris Dance Center in Brooklyn, New York providing a home for the company, rehearsal space for the dance community, outreach programs

Tickets for Mark Morris Dance Group's "The Hard Nut" in Zellerbach Hall Dec. 9-18 (no performances Dec. 12-14), are priced at $32, $48 and $60. Tickets are available through the Cal Performances Ticket Office at Zellerbach Hall; at (510) 642-9988 to charge by phone; at Tickets.com; and at the door. For more information, call the Cal Performances Ticket Office at (510) 642-9988 or visit the Cal Performances Web site at www.calperfs.berkeley.edu.