“The Nutcracker” became not only a ballet: Culkin in the role of the prince, hip-hop battle from Baryshnikov

All people around the globe associate this divine music with the Christmas tree, Christmas and the New Year. On holidays, when the popular melodies of the “Pink Waltz” or “Snow Flake Waltz” seem to come from everywhere, the doll-hero of this ballet becomes an exhibit in the windows of fashion boutiques, and a ticket to a performance at the Bolshoi Theater becomes the best Christmas gift. In terms of popularity, Tchaikovsky surpassed all the most famous contemporary performers combined. It is known that every 5 minutes in the world, even in its most remote corners, Tchaikovsky’s music is heard. And mainly music from his brilliant ballet “The Nutcracker”. This music cannot be canceled because it makes a person happy like nothing else.

The premiere of Tchaikovsky’s third ballet (after Swan Lake and The Sleeping Beauty) took place at the Mariinsky Theater on December 6 (18), 1892. The performance was to be staged by Marius Petipa. But the brilliant French choreographer, whose name is today associated with the concept of “Russian ballet,” only managed to write a script for “The Nutcracker” – and then fell ill. By chance, Lev Ivanov became the first choreographer of this ballet, but his version, staged according to an already written script, has not survived. All that remains of it are scattered records of several fragments according to Stepanov’s system, which are now stored in the Harvard archives. Therefore, there are countless versions of this ballet staged all over the world.

Starting with Fyodor Lopukhov, who in 1929 presented to the public his super-avant-garde “Nutcracker” in the spirit of Meyerhold’s biomechanics (it is from this ballet that from now on in Russia the main character will be called not Clara, but Masha), who has not taken on this ballet by Tchaikovsky.

The most “canonized” version of “The Nutcracker” to date is considered to be the version by Vasily Vainonen (1934). To this day, students of the Vaganova Academy dance Vainonov’s “The Nutcracker” at the Mariinsky Theater. It was with this version in mind that such choreographers as Rudolf Nureyev, Mikhail Baryshnikov (and many others), in fact, created their performances.

But the founder of the American ballet, George Balanchine, being a student of the Petrograd Theater School, who himself once danced in Lev Ivanov’s “The Nutcracker” “Dance of the Buffoons”, remembered that very classic version of Lev Ivanov forever, and reproduced it almost authentically in his own “Nutcracker” staged in America in 1954. It was this Balanchine ballet that laid the foundation for the widespread tradition of showing the performance during the Christmas holidays, which instantly spread in the West, and then spread to Russia.

Although The Nutcracker came to New York even before Balanchine, in the early 40s with the help of the post-Diaghilev troupe Russian Ballet of Monte Carlo. Based on her own memories, it was staged by former ballerina of the Mariinsky Theater Alexandra Fedorova. The popularity of the performance was also added to by the Disney cartoon “Fantasia,” released at that time, in which cartoon characters danced to Tchaikovsky’s music.

Well, Balanchine’s “The Nutcracker” became so popular that it was filmed as a movie in 1993. The role of the Prince – the Nutcracker – is played by a student of the Balanchine ballet school, Makaley Culkin, who became famous in the comedy “Home Alone”.

And for the first time, foreign audiences became acquainted with “The Nutcracker” on Anna Pavlova’s tour – Ivan Khlyustin staged for her the one-act ballet “Snowflakes” to heavily chopped music by Tchaikovsky. Completely outside of Russia, the ballet was staged in 1934, choreographed by Lev Ivanov, in a company called Vic Wells Ballet, which later became the English Royal Ballet.

None of the classical ballets has caused so many completely different readings as the Christmas Nutcracker. The history of The Nutcracker is also known for completely unexpected decisions: in a wretched orphanage, for example, the action of the ballet takes place in an original and at the same time very witty production by the English choreographer Matthew Bourne; The story of the Russian emigrant ballerina is told in the ballet by Australian Graham Murphy. There are famous interpretations of this ballet made by Roland Petit, Mark Morris, John Cranko, Nacho Duato and many other choreographers.

The genius of 20th century choreography, Maurice Bejart, made the ballet not at all about a toy used for cracking nuts, but as a memory of his own childhood, of his early deceased mother and father. This is one of the last ballets of the famous Frenchman, staged 9 years before his death.

In Bejart’s The Nutcracker there is neither Clara (Marie) nor the Nutcracker. There is a boy, Bim (that was Bejart’s name in childhood), and there is even his beloved cat, Felix. But the main thing in the ballet is the image of the mother: first in the form of a giant sculpture similar to Botticelli’s Venus! And then the mother emerges from the womb of this sculpture, as if from a grotto. Bejart also invented a good fairy, whose role was played by the famous French accordionist Yvette Orner, riding on a sleigh in a snow-white dress by Jean-Paul Gaultier, like the Snow Queen.

But in another ballet classic, John Neumeier, the girl Masha wants to become a ballerina and in a dream she ends up in the world of Russian ballet, in the famous St. Petersburg Theater School.

“The Nutcracker” of the Bolshoi Theater, about which there is so much talk now due to the crush in queues, was staged by Yuri Grigorovich in 1966. The patriarch of Russian ballet, in his youth, tried to get closer to the philosophical depth of Tchaikovsky’s last ballet and created one of its best versions. The main character of this production is Drosselmeyer, Masha’s godfather.

In general, in the history of The Nutcracker, Drosselmeyer has always been given special attention, and in different productions this hero is also presented differently. So, in Nureyev’s play, which is staged at the Paris Opera, and after him by other choreographers, it is Drosselmeyer who turns into the Prince in the main character’s dream. This happens, for example, in Andrei Petrov’s “The Nutcracker,” which has been on the stage of the Kremlin Palace for the past 30 years, performed by the Kremlin Ballet troupe. Here, as in Grigorovich’s production, Drosselmeyer even shows the children tricks that the famous illusionist Igor Kio developed for this performance.

And, for example, in the Belarusian classic, choreographer Valentin Elizariev, in “The Nutcracker,” created for the Belarusian Bolshoi Theater and which is the main decoration of the Christmas holidays in Belarus (and queues for tickets in Minsk line up no less than in Moscow), Drosselmeyer, on the contrary, turns into the main rat. In this performance, Drosselmeyer is not only a master of puppets, but also the demiurge of the puppet world he created. And in order to test Masha’s feelings for the Nutcracker (and of all the dolls in his workshop, Masha chooses him), he becomes the King of Mouse.

For Valentin Elizariev’s student, Radu Pocoitaru, all the action takes place in the rat world. Even the snowflakes in his ballet are fat rats, dressed in tutus, hilariously fluttering and twirling in classical ballet steps.

“The Nutcracker” walks around the world in a variety of versions and editions… In the USA alone, for example, there are more than 150 versions of the ballet. “The Nutcracker” is staged everywhere there, even in those cities where there are no ballet troupes of their own – by amateur performers and students of local choreographic studios.

Naturally, there is a “Nutcracker” in hip-hop style in America. Instead of pointe shoes there are ordinary sneakers, instead of packs there are sports sweatpants, the scenery is replaced with modern video projections, the action itself is transferred to the bars and gateways of New York. The Nutcracker and Maria Clara decide the dispute with the mice in battles: whoever makes the coolest, spinning the bottom break on his head, wins. This is exactly the “Nutcracker” that was shown in Moscow 7 years ago by choreographer Jennifer Weber, and Tchaikovsky’s music was mixed by DJ Boo, who usually plays in underground clubs in New York and makes remixes of rap stars. “The Nutcracker” in this killer style has become so popular that a year ago the Americans even filmed a rap adaptation of the famous ballet as a musical comedy, which is called “Hip-Hop Nutcracker” with Mikhail Baryshnikov in one of the roles. The premiere, of course, took place shortly before the Christmas holidays.

But in Russia this performance was shown all year round. And only since 1980, after the Moscow Summer Olympics, the tradition of performing this ballet masterpiece on December 31st was established in Moscow. Since then, long before the New Year, crowds of people have been besieging the Bolshoi Theater box office, lining up in kilometer-long queues with mandatory registration, roll call and night duty in the hope of purchasing the coveted ticket to the legendary Russian ballet performance.