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Previous Issues > December 2005 > All About Art > The Nutcracker
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 All About Art
The Nutcracker
 Little Marie at a Christmas party. Marching toy soldiers, mice, and the Sugar Plum Fairy. A huge Christmas tree and a very special Nutcracker. These are the ingredients for that special holiday treat, The Nutcracker. Dance studios all over the world perform The Nutcracker ballet during the month of December.
In 1816, E.T.A. Hoffman published The Nutcracker and the Mouse King, a scary fairy tale intended only for adults. Years later, Alexander Dumas Pre changed the story, making it happier and more appropriate for children to read. Marius Petipa, chief ballet master of the Russian Imperial Ballet, liked this new story and decided to have it made into a ballet. He commissioned Peter Ilyitch Tschaikovsky to write the music. Petipas assistant Lev Ivanov created the choreography. The production was first performed in December 1892 in St. Petersburg, Russia. (Tschaikovsky had a concert of the music in March, before the ballet was produced. At least six times, the crowd demanded encores of the music!) George Balanchine, who grew up in Russia, danced the role of the Prince in The Nutcracker in 1919 when he was 15 years old. Later, after he had moved to America and founded New York City Ballet, he decided to choreograph his own version of The Nutcracker for his company. The first performance of this production was in February 1954 in New York City, and George Balanchines The Nutcracker has been an annual holiday tradition ever since. New York City Ballet usually presents 46 performances of the ballet annually and 150 costumes appear on stage in each performance! The Balanchine production of The Nutcracker has inspired many other productions throughout the world. The NYCB performance was filmed in 1993 so that people all around the world can enjoy the production on video.
The New York City Ballet has also created The Nutcracker Project, in conjunction with the New York City Department of Education. This program for third-grade and fourth-grade students includes a New York City Ballet matinee performance of George Balanchines The NutcrackerTM at the New York State Theater at Lincoln Center. The students also attend five in-school workshops taught by NYCB teaching artists. The workshops focus on themes from The Nutcracker. Teaching artists guide students in activities combining movement, music, drama, and visual art with language arts. The program ends with a display of student posters and the publication of an anthology (a collection of poetry, short stories or plays) of their individual and class poetry and artwork. The Department of Education chooses 34 schools for participation in the program; two third-grade and fourth-grade classes are then selected from each of those schools.
Source: New York City Ballet, www.nycballet.com; Ballet Minnesota, www.balletminnesota.org
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