THE Nutcracker, choreographed by Scottish Ballet’s founding artistic director Peter Darrell back in 1973, is a much-loved gem in the repertoire of our national dance company. Given a new lease of life under current artistic director Christopher Hampson, it enjoyed a celebrated revival in 2014.

Now, following the Covid-enforced postponement of last year’s production, the show begins a six-city tour (taking in Glasgow, Aberdeen, Inverness, Newcastle and Belfast) at Edinburgh’s splendid Festival Theatre. Whilst continuity, both with Darrell’s original choreography and Hampson’s re-envisioning of it, is very much to the fore in this latest staging, eagle-eyed ballet lovers will notice some new innovations.

For a start, the role of the magician Drosselmeyer has been feminised, and, as the late Barry Norman might have said, why not? On opening night Madeline Squire played the character with an energetic flair that defied any traditionalist insistence that the role is, somehow, inherently masculine.

Even more significantly – and as is explained in an interesting article in the show’s programme by my fellow critic Katie Goh – increasing sensitivity towards cultural representation has led Scottish Ballet to re-appraise the famous scene in Act 2 in which characters from various parts of the world dance for Clara (the little girl whose dream the ballet is).

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In the case of the problematic Chinese Tea Dance, for instance, Hampson has taken on board the views of dancer and activist Phil Chan (who advised New York City Ballet on its staging of The Nutcracker).

In doing so, he has sought to ensure that the representation of Chinese culture – both in costume and in physical gesture – is affirmative, rather than derogatory. Let the Nadine Dorries-style culture warriors of this world reach for their divisive, one-dimensional epithets about “wokeness” and “political correctness”.

Anyone blessed with a sense of decency and proportion will agree with Hampson that these timely (indeed, overdue) innovations are part of the evolution of ballet as an art form. If our theatres are to be welcoming places for everyone, it is imperative that representations of people’s cultures be positive, rather than being steeped in racial stereotypes.

That said, there are problems of cultural sensitivity in many classical art works, including The Nutcracker, that cannot be so easily fixed. Take, for example, the music Tchaikovsky wrote to accompany the Arabian Dance.

Beautiful though it is, the music betrays an Orientalist European fascination with the Arab world as a mysterious conundrum. Better, I suggest, to understand this aspect of Tchaikovsky’s score in its historical and cultural context than to consider removing it.

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Nonetheless, Hampson’s changes have enhanced the piece, adding to, not detracting from, its general splendour. As in 2014, this rendering of Darrell’s work is a gorgeous Christmas creation.

Indeed, the production isn’t so “woke” that it can’t revel in the conspicuous consumption of the 19th- century, bourgeois festivities that make up most of Act 1. The entire company is on wonderful display as splendidly attired, copiously moustached army officers dance with expensively frocked ladies.

In Act 2 Marge Hendrick and Evan Loudon are the very image of traditional ballet in the all-important roles of the Sugar Plum Fairy and the Nutcracker Prince. Surrounded by a sky full of Christmas baubles, watched by Clara (tremendous child star Caoimhe Fisher) and a pair of charmingly costumed monkeys, they dance with subtle beauty and impressive physicality to some of the most famous pieces of music in Tchaikovsky’s remarkable oeuvre.

Once again, Hampson has rendered Darrell’s famous Nutcracker as the most sumptuous and exhilarating of festive ballets.

Touring until February 12: scottishballet.co.uk