Background of The Nutcracker
Learn about the history and production of Southern California Ballet’s annual holiday tradition, The Nutcracker.
Synopsis of Southern California Ballet’s The Nutcracker
Act I
Prologue with Herr Drosselmeyer & Ragamuffin: Once upon a time in the winter of 1892…
Scene One – The Stahlbaum’s House
Dr. and Mrs. Stahlbaum welcome their guests to a Christmas party. Herr Drosselmeyer is the last to arrive, and he brings his life-sized dolls to entertain the children. He also brings a lovely, wooden nutcracker for Clara. Fritz is jealous, so he chases Clara and knocks the nutcracker from her grasp. Herr Drosselmeyer quickly retrieves it for Clara, for this is no ordinary toy.
Scene Two – Time Suspended – The Battle
Later when the other guests have gone, Drosselmeyer uses magic to suspend time at the Stahlbaum house. He takes Clara into a world of fantasy. As the fantasy unfolds, life-sized mice begin to appear in Clara’s living room. The Christmas tree grows into gigantic proportions. Soldiers and gingerbreads arrive and battle the mice. The nutcracker comes to life and fights the ugly Mouse King. Clara tries to help the nutcracker. Finally, the Mouse King falls. Clara cries because she believes her nutcracker has vanished. Instead, the spell is broken and a handsome prince emerges.
Scene Three – Land of Snow
The Nutcracker Prince takes Clara on a magical journey that begins at the Land of Snow. They soon meet the beautiful Snow Queen and her Cavalier.
Act II
Scene One – Journey to the Sugar Plum Palace
Later at the Kingdom of Sweets, the Sugar Plum Fairy and her entourage of delicacies from all over the world pay tribute with magnificent entertainment in the young couple’s honor. Eventually, the dream must come to an end, and they all gather to bid farewell.
Act I Choreography
The Party
The party scene includes many instances of “mise en scene,” which function to set the scene and set up the story of Clara and her family. The dances in this scene are based on the social dances that would have been enjoyed by guests at social events in the Victorian Era. The simple steps are danced with a partner in patterns in a ballroom type setting. This scene also includes narrative choreography, meaning that it tells a story with the steps. For example, Clara’s solo dance with the doll that she receives as a gift at the beginning of the scene expresses the excitement she feels.
The Battle
In the battle scene, the choreography is designed to highlight the difference between the two sides of the battle, the mice and the toy soldiers. The toy soldiers’ movements are very rigid and their range of motion is limited, just as an actual toy soldier’s movements would be. Similarly, their formations are very structured, much like that of a group of soldiers of the time period. In contrast, the mice move freely. Their movements are not uniform and their patterns are much more natural and free form, as if they are real mice scurrying around the house. The gingerbreads always hold the same position with their arms and legs to show that they are “baked” into their position.
The Land of Snow
The snow scene is an abstract dance: a dance for dance’s sake that does not follow a linear story. The dancers represent snowflakes both individually and in their group patterns. Arms and legs stick outward, forming large snowflake patterns. From sharp “icy” movements to soft “drifting snowflake” movements, the movements they perform represent various aspects of snow. Look out for the “blizzard” section towards the end of the scene, during which the choreography and music reach a crescendo and the snow storm is at its height. Once the storm calms, snowflakes drift back onto the stage and wave goodbye to Clara and the Prince.
Act II Divertissements
Divertissement (noun)
A short dance within a ballet used to show off technical skills.
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Divertissements are loosely connected and typically do not advance the ballet’s plot. They may be performed as solos or in groups.
Chocolate
“Chocolate” choreography and music are heavily influenced by Spanish flamenco dance because, in Victorian Europe, chocolate was a very fine delicacy that was mostly enjoyed in Spain. The passion and flare of flamenco dance also invokes the spicy taste that the chocolate from this era would have had. The dance is powerful, just like the taste of bitter chocolate, with lots of big jumps, leaps, and turns.
Tea
“Tea” is based on the motions of picking tea in tea fields, such as those that would be found in Southeast Asia. The dancers perform the dance on pointe, forming patterns and lines that represent the way that the tea fields are laid out. The choreography itself expresses the way the tea pickers might interact with each other while working in rows and rows of bushes. For more information on the complex history of “Tea” choreography, visit Final Bow for Yellowface.
Trepak
“Trepak” is based on the traditional Russian and Ukrainian folk dance of the same name. The version performed in The Nutcracker is a character dance, a ballet with an emphasis on folk dance. The choreography includes lots of stamps, claps, and steps performed in parallel, with the feet and legs not turned out as they would be in pure ballet, to evoke the folk dance feeling of the original trepak. The dance is also very high energy, just like that of Russian folk dance steps which include very large jumps with tucked legs, low-to-the-ground shunts in a grand plié with knees bent all the way, and other “bravura” tricks like the “coffee grinder,” where one leg is swung in a circle and the other leg jumps over it.
Coffee
“Coffee” is set in the Middle East in the Arabian Peninsula, where coffee brewing first developed. The three dancers in this scene start out dancing with silk scarves which float magically around the stage, resembling silk banners floating in the winds of the Arabian Desert. Many of the poses in this dance are inspired by traditional Arab belly dances, which have their origins in Egypt. Articulation of the hips accentuate the percussive, fluid, or vibrating torso-driven moments central to Raqs Sharqi, the classic style of Egyptian belly dance. Some of the poses are also reminiscent of Ancient Egyptian hieroglyphs.
Grand Pas De Deux
The Grand Pas De Deux is a traditional classical pas de deux for the Sugar Plum Fairy and her Cavalier. The term “Grand Pas De Deux” encompasses the duet, the two solos and the coda, the fast and exciting dance for both dancers that finishes the section. The Sugar Plum Grand Pas De Deux is performed by principal dancers who have reached an elite level of dancing, and is therefore very technically demanding despite the impression of being danced with ease. Watch out for big over-the-head lifts, partnered turns, and balances. Many of the turns and lifts are accentuated by crescendos in the very dramatic music.
History of The Nutcracker
1816
E. T. A. Hoffmann, a Prussian author, writes the fairy tale The Nutcracker and the Mouse King, which would later become the inspiration for The Nutcracker ballet.
November–December 1890
Ivan Vsevolozhsky, Director of the Russian Imperial Theatres, begins talks with composer Pyotr Ilyich Tchaikovsky to commission the writing of a one-act opera and two-act ballet. In a December 1890 letter written to Mikhail Mikhaylovich Ippolitov-Ivanov, a Russian composer 20 years Tchaikovsky’s junior, Tchaikovsky describes concerns that by obliging with the commissions, he will prevent younger composers’ works from being performed on-stage. He concludes, “No one knows better than I do how important it is for a young composer to get his works performed at a great theatre, therefore I would be willing to make some sacrifice, if I were sure it would be of any use. But supposing I were to relinquish my commission to compose an opera and a ballet. What would be the result? They would rather put on three foreign operas than risk a new Russian one by a young composer.” (The Life & Letters of Peter Ilich Tchaikovsky, 620)
March 6, 1891
Tchaikovsky meets with the choreographer Petipa and they finalize the plans for Act II. Later that day, Tchaikovsky departs Saint Petersburg.
1844
Alexandre Dumas adapts Hoffmann’s story to create Histoire d’un casse-noisette (The Nutcracker). This adaptation is later used as the premise for Tchaikovsky’s The Nutcracker.
February 5, 1891
Choreographer Marius Petipa provides Tchaikovsky with plans for the ballet’s first act.
Mid-February, 1891
Tchaikovsky begins composing scenes from The Nutcracker, completing the first two numbers in Scene I—No. 1, The Decoration of the Christmas Tree, and No. 2, March (the entrance of the children).
February 18, 1891
Tchaikovsky goes to Saint Petersburg to discuss new ideas that Vsevolozhsky has for the first act of The Nutcracker. In the letter that Vsevolozhsky sends to request their meeting, he explains his belief that Petipa’s original plans for the first act will displease the public and irritate the audience.
March 31, 1891
In Rouen, Tchaikovsky resumes composing The Nutcracker. He completes the numbers he had originally left out of Act I as well as the beginning of Act II. It is believed that Act I’s sketches were likely finished in Rouen.
April 26, 1891
Tchaikovsky arrives in New York for 25-days. At the official opening of the Music Hall, now known as Carnegie Hall, on May 5, he conducts his Coronation March. During his trip, Tchaikovsky is extremely depressed and does not work on The Nutcracker, writing to a friend “I cannot start working again before June at the earliest... otherwise whatever I tried to write would turn out wretchedly.”
June 25, 1891
Tchaikovsky finishes his sketches for The Nutcracker, writing to a friend, “Remember when you were here I boasted that I had something like five days left to finish the ballet? It turned out that I only just managed it in 2 weeks. No! The old man is evidently declining.”
March 10, 1891
Tchaikovsky arrives in Paris, France with intentions of composing more of The Nutcracker there. He finds it hard to complete his work in Paris, so travels to Rouen, France on March 29.
April 3, 1891
In a letter to Vsevolozhsky, Tchaikovsky questions his ability to finish composing The Nutcracker in light of his upcoming trip to the United States. In an appeal to Vsevolozhsky, Tchaikovsky requests postponing the ballet and opera productions until the following season.
May 20, 1891
Upon returning to Saint Petersburg in Russia, and with Vsevolozhsky’s agreement to postpone the ballet and opera, Tchaikovsky resumes working on Act II of The Nutcracker.
January 1892
Tchaikovsky begins orchestrating The Nutcracker after completing that of the opera. He finishes the ballet’s orchestration on March 23, 1892.
December 6, 1892
The Nutcracker premieres at the Mariinsky Theatre in Saint Petersburg, produced by Lev Ivanov with conducting by Riccardo Drigo. Tchaikovsky said of the performance, “The Nutcracker was staged quite well: it was lavishly produced and everything went off perfectly, but nevertheless, it seemed to me that the public did not like it. They were bored.”
August 4, 1908
The Nutcracker is for the first time staged outside of Russia with a performance at the National Theatre in Prague, wherein the following two years, it would be staged 24 times.
December 4, 1944
The first complete performance of The Nutcracker in the United States occurs, produced by William Christensen with the San Francisco Ballet.
November 6, 1983
Tchaikovsky dies of cholera (or so we think!)
October 17, 1940
The Ballet Russe de Monte Carlo stages an abridged version of The Nutcracker in New York, marking the ballet’s first performance in the United States.
References
Monden, Masafumi. (2014). Layers of the Ethereal: A Cultural Investigation of Beauty, Girlhood, and Ballet in Japanese Shōjo Manga. Fashion Theory: The Journal of Dress. 18. 10.2752/175174114X13938552557808.
Tchaikovsky, Modeste. The Life & Letters of Peter Ilich Tchaikovsky. E-book ed., The Project Gutenberg, 2014, https://www.gutenberg.org/files/45259/45259-h/45259-h.htm.
Tchaikovsky, Peter Ilyich. “Dear Misha!” Received by Mikhail Ippolitov-Ivanov, The Life of Pyotr Ilyich Tchaikovsky, 24 Dec. 1902, Moscow, pp. 416–418, https://en.tchaikovsky-research.net/pages/Letter_4279.
“The Nutcracker - Tchaikovsky Research.” Tchaikovsky Research, 15 Feb. 2018, https://en.tchaikovsky-research.net/pages/The_Nutcracker.