By RICK de YAMPERTENTERTAINMENT WRITER
Those Sugar Plum Fairies must be jealous.
The Fairies, those stars of Tchaikovsky's renowned Christmas ballet, "The Nutcracker, " have a rival -- another ballet that has become a tradition each holiday season in Daytona Beach.
These ballet artists perform such intricate maneuvers as a pas de trois, a pas de quatre, the quadrille, the capriole and "airs above the ground" -- even though they weigh a bit more than any Sugar Plum Fairy. Tons more.
And they have long, shaggy hair that flops hippie-like over their eyes and down their backs. And they prance and pirouette with people on their backs -- people dressed in uniforms that resemble soldiers in Napoleon's army.
Who are these ballet artists? They're the World Famous Lipizzaner Stallions, a troupe of performing horses (and riders) whose graceful maneuvers have led some observers to call the animals' performances "equestrian ballet."
As in past years around Christmastime and the new year, the Lipizzaners are returning to the Ocean Center. The troupe will perform two shows there on Jan. 2.
The Lipizzaners' lineage can be traced back to Austria in 1580, where they originally were bred for use in war. Under their riders' guidance, the horses were trained to perform awe-inspiring leaps and airborne kicks, the better to out-maneuver and intimidate the foot soldiers of enemy armies.
The horses' moves were an extension of their natural instincts -- even the spectacular leaps and kicks that came to have such exotic names as the capriole and the courbette.
The horses' history has been entwined with battle in other ways. In Europe during the Napoleonic Wars of the early 1800s, the horses repeatedly were evacuated to keep them out of harm's way.
During World War II, U.S. Gen. George Patton saved the animals from near-extinction by ordering his troops to move the Lipizzaners by train from war-strafed Vienna to safety 200 miles away. That event was depicted in the 1963 Walt Disney movie "The Miracle of the White Stallions."
These days, the performing Lipizzaners are bred in Oviedo for the sheer beauty of their movements, under the guidance of show producer and former rock concert promoter Gary Lashinsky.
After encountering a Lipizzaner performance in 1964 and later learning about the stallions' colorful 420-year history, Lashinsky created his own touring show of Lipizzaners over 35 years ago.
He personally purchased Lipizzaners at a breeding farm in Austria and imported them to a training and stable facility in Oviedo.
"They've always been considered the royalty of all horses, " Lashinsky says. "I guess you could call them the Mercedes of horses. There's always been this mystique about the Lipizzaner."
If You Go
WHAT: World Famous Lipizzaner Stallions
WHEN: 2 and 7:30 p.m. Jan. 2
WHERE: Ocean Center, 101 N. Atlantic Ave., Daytona Beach.
TICKETS: $18.50, $22.50 and $27.50 plus service fee. Children ages 3 to 12 and seniors 60 and older receive $2 off $18.50 and $22.50 seats. Children 2 and younger are free if seated on a parent's lap. Tickets are available at the center box office and Ticketmaster.
INFORMATION: 386-254-4545.
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