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The Nutcracker Ballet – Ten Things you May Not Have Known B y B o n n i e B o i t e r -J o l l e y
The Nutcracker ballet is arguably one of the most enduring and recognizable holiday traditions of the past two hundred years. With a young girl’s fairytale-like dream of a trip to a magical land filled with sweets and treats and an enchanted Nutcracker doll that comes to life as a prince to guide her, all set to a whimsical and timelessly spirited score, why would it not? But how much do we really know about this ballet, and how did it become such a staple in the holiday season? We did some digging to find out. PHOTO courtesy columb ia cit y b allet
1. The Nutracker was originally staged in 1892 as a collaboration of Marius Petipa, Ballet Master of St. Petersburg Imperial Theatre, and assistant Lev Ivanov and was set to the music of Peter Ilyich Tchaikovsky. It is generally assumed that a large majority of the choreography was Ivanov’s, considering Petipa’s failing health at the time, although Petipa is known to have left strict guidelines for his protégé to follow. 2. The story of the ballet is based on E.T.A. Hoffmann’s book, The Nutcracker and the Mouse King, and was influenced by the lighter The Nutcracker of Nuremberg by Alexandre Dumas. 24
3. Originally, and in many productions since the ballet was first staged, the roles of the lead characters are danced by children of the same age as the characters. 4. Though first appearing in the United States in 1944 in William Christensen’s production for the San Francisco Opera Ballet, The Nutcracker’s popularity in the United States is attributed largely to George Balanchine’s restaging of the production on the New York City Ballet in 1954. The production reimagined many details of choreography but in many cases paid homage to Petipa and Ivanov’s original version and in some instances pulled straight from the primary
choreography. 5. Balanchine’s production was filmed in 1993 starring Macaulay Culkin as the Nutcracker Prince and was released on video the following year. 6. In 2010, Alexei Ratmansky choreographed a new production of The Nutcracker for the American Ballet Theatre which put a new spin on the old tale. In a review for the Wall Street Journal, Robert Greskovic wrote, “his achievement stands to dramatically change the minds of those of us who thought we knew The Nutcracker through and through.” 7. The divertissements, or short dance