The Tradition of the Nutcracker Ballet

The beginning of holiday season starts with the Nutcracker

History of The Nutcracker

The Nutcracker ballet dates back all the way to 1892. It began in Russia, where many of today’s classical ballet styles originated from.

Since then, this Christmas delight and tradition has grown, sweeping the world with performances all over.

England became the second country to produce and show the Nutcracker in 1934 and the United States ten years later in 1944.

The still famous San Francisco ballet was the first debut of the Nutcracker in the United States. New York performed it for the first time ten years after that in 1954.

The Nutcracker is part of our Christmas traditions

I was first introduced to the Nutcracker through my dancing daughters. They began their dancing journey with ballet, as most young children do.

Both of my girls started ballet at the age of 3 when they were in preschool. When they were promoted and moved on to primary school, they expressed interest in continuing to dance so I found a local studio that some friends attended.

Although, it was their elementary school field trip where we first got to see this beautiful ballet. Their dance studio didn’t perform the Nutcracker for Christmas but instead did a very exciting and fun rendition of “The Grinch” called “Who Stole Christmas?”

During the first Nutcracker that we saw, most of the kids were bored. They were fidgeting around in their seats. Most of the boys were not interested and some of the girls followed suit.

But, my daughter, well she was enthralled. She studied every character and part, talking about it the entire way home in the car.

“I want to be the Mouse Queen when I get older. Or, Clara, but that seems like it would be a stressful part.”

If you haven’t seen the ballet, Clara is the lead. Clara receives the Nutcracker for Christmas. When she falls asleep on Christmas Eve, she dreams of helping the Nutcracker defeat the Mouse King and about the Nutcracker turning into a prince.

The ballet starts with a party and there are many different characters introduced throughout the ballet.

Starstruck

It wasn’t until many years later that both of my daughters would dance in the Nutcracker. Before they moved studios 5 years ago, we were able to score tickets to the American Ballet Theatre’s Nutcracker.

The American Ballet Theatre was founded in the 1940s and they performed their first Nutcracker in 1976 and still produce the best Nutcracker performances today.

If you are into ballet, you might know who Misty Copeland is. She became the first African American principal ballerina at the American Ballet Theatre. She landed this spot in 2015 and is still dancing today, at 40 years old.

I was friends with her sister in high school but she didn’t enter high school until the year we graduated so I didn’t have the opportunity to get to know her. Although, I decided to reconnect with her sister when we were going to be seeing the Nutcracker in 2018.

She was able to get us backstage and get my girls a signed pair of her pointe shoes. They were over the moon excited and couldn’t believe they would have the opportunity to meet their idol.

The other major lead role in the Nutcracker, besides Clara, is the Sugar Plum Fairy, and this is the role that Misty Copeland danced. She is stunning on stage, floating so effortlessly and making it all look so easy.

After being mesmerized by the show, my daughters couldn’t wait to dance in the Nutcracker themselves.

A little bit of holiday magic

My daughters have been dancing in this Christmas production for the past four years, minus the Covid year.

Thankfully, last year they got some extraordinary time on stage during their lead roles as Mouse Queen and Snow Queen. I cried knowing that it was my older daughter's last time dancing in any Christmas production.

It is that time again for the Nutcracker this year. It feels strange to only have one daughter dancing, as I have been coming to these Christmas productions for the past 13 years to watch them.

Tonight, my daughter will be dancing in many roles but the highlight will be seeing her as the lead Arabian. Her other roles include Clara’s best friend, snowflake, Russian, and Flower.

In Act 2, Clara and the prince travel to the land of sweets. In Clara’s honor, there is a celebration of sweets from around the world: chocolate from Spain, coffee from Arabia, tea from China, and candy canes from Russia.

The lead Arabian role is physically demanding as she is lifted multiple times by the male Arabian. She does a few flips, twists, and turns and I marvel at how her back is so bendy.

The final performances are today and I will be a proud mom in the audience.

Have you been to the Nutcracker? Or even better, have you danced in the Nutcracker?