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Cracking!
A guide for young people to "The Nutcracker"

Christmas is “Nutcracker time” to everyone in the ballet world. Maybe your parents have taken you to see the classic Christmas ballet before? The funny drawings of Grandpa, Clara, The Leaping Nutcracker and Drosselmeyer are designs by Gerald Scarfe for English National Ballet’s current production of the ballet. By Mary Clarke for The Dancing Times

As we enter the Christmas season, everyone in the ballet world thinks of it as “Nutcracker time”. The chances are that if you are being taken to see a ballet as part of a Christmas treat that ballet will be The Nutcracker. It was first staged in St Petersburg at the famous Maryinsky Theatre in 1892, well over one hundred years ago, and the critics were very rude about the production. Yet today the ballet can be seen all over the world. Last Christmas more than 300 productions were danced across North America, dozens more in Europe and, indeed, in almost every corner of the globe where there is a ballet company. How do we explain this popularity? Well, the ballet starts with a Christmas party and all the magical things which happen come out of that party, so it is very topical for this time of year. The story is a little bit complicated and all the various productions treat it a little differently, but the little heroine Clara (or Masha in some, especially Russian, productions) is the one who has the adventures in nearly all of them.

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<small>[ 12-06-2002, 09:33: Message edited by: Stuart Sweeney ]</small>