If you've seen one ballet in your life, the chances are pretty good that it was Pyotr Ilich Tchaikovsky's "The Nutcracker." The ballet debuted in Moscow in 1891 to a lukewarm reception with critics spanking Tchaikovsky for the storyline featuring a child and the “heavy and wooden” steps of the dancers.
But the ballet eventually caught on because unlike other ballets at the time, it was full of fun and magic. "But later audiences," writes National Geographic's Erin Blakemore, "responded to imaginative transformations and human embodiment of natural phenomena—such as snow and flowers—magic that added up to what Mahiet calls its 'spectacle of wonder.'”
The story is simple. A family is celebrating Christmas and the children are given a nutcracker by a family friend. Later in the evening, a little girl sneaks down to see her presents and when she does, she's whisked away to a magical world involving a battle between a heroic life-size nutcracker and an evil mouse king. After winning the battle (in some versions, it's quite scary), the nutcracker turns into a prince and sweeps the girl off her feet and into a flying sleigh.
In the second act, Clara and the Prince watch a cavalcade of anthropomorphized sweets and treats, including Chinese tea, ginger, and chocolate, pay tribute through dance. At the end of the performance, the Sugar Plum Fairy performs a duet with a cavalier, and Clara leaves with the Prince.
The story is drawn from "The Nutcracker and the Mouse King,” an 1816 novella by E.T.A. Hoffmann, a German contemporary of the Brothers Grimm. Like the Grimms, Hoffman's "fairy tales" were dark and scary. In his novella, the mouse king bites the leg of the girl and some of the soldiers kill themselves to fall on the nutcracker army.
By the time "The Nutcracker" made it to America in 1944, it had undergone some revisions. It was performed by the San Francisco Ballet and generated national interest in the production.
But The Nutcracker’s most indelible mark on the fledgling American ballet scene was left by the New York City Ballet in 1954. Reimagined by choreographer George Balanchine, who had grown up dancing it in Russia, the production ditched the traditional Petipa choreography for Balanchine’s soaring steps and exacting stage directions. With the help of a spectacular set and with Balanchine’s ex-wife, prima ballerina Maria Tallchief, originating the new Sugar Plum Fairy, it was a smash hit.
Balanchine received a lot of criticism for staging the ballet even before it opened. But his troupe's athletic and dynamic performance captivated New York audiences.
“Everyone in New York was against it, including the critics,” recalled Balanchine’s ex-wife, prima ballerina Maria Tallchief.“The company was struggling financially . . . well, thank God we did [stage it], because it saved the company.”
Indeed, according to contemporary accounts, the staging of "The Nutcracker" brings in about 48% of the revenue for professional ballet companies across America who stage it.
The ballet was reimagined again in 1977 when the then-recently defected Mikhail Baryshnikov was asked to choreograph a production for U.S. television. “I am pleased," said Baryshnikov. "Now ‘Nutcracker’ can be seen in little cities, too.” Baryshnikov had to condense the production to fit it in the 90-minute time slot allotted by CBS.
But any chance you get to watch a young Baryshnikov flying through the air with his measured 50" vertical leap (Michale Jordan's vertical leap was 48") can't be missed.
Ballet is the least popular of the performing arts largely because it's extraordinarily demanding to perform. No one wants to see a Kluttz perform "Swan Lake." But to see Misty Copeland perform is to watch the incredible combination of an artist and an athlete at their best.
"The Nutcracker" is far better known for its music than its dance, as well it should be. But if you get a chance to see a performance by a professional troupe, you won't regret it.
