Ballet: "The Nutcracker"

"The Nutcracker"

Ballet Production

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The Nutcracker has historically been on of the most popular ballets and still is today. Traditionally, The Nutcracker is a ballet geared towards children, so it retains it's popularity because there is a never-ending audience. This ballet in particular has been choreographed and performed by numberous choreographers, dancers, and companies.

Shchelkunchic is the name of the ballet in Russian. It was first choreographed by Lev Ivanov and set to the music of Piotr Ilych Tchaikovsky. Although the choreography has changed, the music still remains the same. The Marinsky Theater was the site of the first performance of The Nutcracker during the winter of 1892.

The story goes that a young girl, Klara, is given a toy nutcracker as a Christmas present by her Grandfather Drosselmeyer during a Christmas party put on by her parents. Later that evening after the party ends, Klara falls asleep and dreams that her nutcracker comes to life. Throughout the course of her dream, Klara has to fight the King of the Mice in order to save her nutcracker. After she saves him, he turns into a handsome prince and they take a wonderful journey together to the Kingdom of Sweets where they find the Sugar Plum Fairy. The dream and the ballet ends with Klara awakening from her dream to find that her nutcracker is only a toy.



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The History of the Russian Ballet, The Vaganova Academy, The Bolshoi Theater, The Marinsky Theater, Anna Pavlova, Galina Sergeyevna Ulanova, Natalya Dudinskaya, Vaslav Nijinsky, Mikhail Baryshnikov, Marius Petipa, Michel Fokine, George Balanchine, Swan Lake, The Music of Piotr Ilych Tchaikovsky, Image Sources, Works Consulted

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