Nutcracker Nation

 
 
Nutcracker Nation

How an Old World Ballet Became a Christmas Tradition in the New World

by Jennifer Fisher

Yale University Press

2003

 

 

In Nutcracker Nation, Fisher looks at the history of The Nutcracker in America and the meaning it holds for both dancers and audiences.

 
In America, The Nutcracker is an annual Christmas tradition, the single biggest money-maker for dance companies, the one ballet that nearly every dance student has performed, the ballet that people are most likely to have attended as an audience member, and the show that critics and 'serious' ballet fans and performers feel the most ambivalent about. So it's popular, loaded with extra meaning as a holiday tradition and childhood rite of passage, and as a result, a bit maligned by the people most interested in ballet for its aesthetic qualities and association with status.

 
Fisher starts with a history of The Nutcracker. It was first produced in Russia in the 1890s, but had little commercial or critical success there. An animated version was included in Disney's Fantasia. In the postwar years, it began to become an annual tradition in the US, helped along by several tv specials in the late 1950s. It acts as an 'invented tradition' - a relatively recent ritual that has the appearance of being much older, in part because it uses symbols that represent contemporary ideas about the past.

 
Fisher then discusses both the 'traditional' Nutcracker and some of the many variations meant to modernize it, or address gender issues, or make it more appealing to aesthetes, or make it more relatable, either to popular audiences or specific ethnic communities. She also explores the ethnic stereotypes that are usually incorporated into certain dances, and some of the ways ballet companies have tried to change those. This section draws on her observations attending a really wide variety of performances.

 
Fisher also conducted ethnographic research, attending rehearsals and performances for one amateur suburban dance company and one major urban one. She interviewed dancers, the stage crews, volunteers, and audience members.

 
The Nutcracker is always a community production. In addition to the roles for professionals, there are parts for children and teen ballet students, and sometimes extras of all ages to fill out certain crowd scenes. There is no one canonical choreography. Although certain arrangements are more or less handed down from key early productions, each dance troupe is essentially forced to interpret it in their own way. And many enjoy the chance to do something specific and local.

 
For ballet students, The Nutcracker is an opportunity to see themselves advancing in both age and skill. Many adult women have memories of ballet lessons and dancing The Nutcracker when they were girls, and it's often something from their own childhood that mothers can share with daughters.

 
Despite their artistic ambivalence, dance companies like the revenue the show brings in, often like the ritual aspect as well, and sometimes like the chance to do something lower stakes, fun, and universally beloved. And while most dance students move on to other careers, essentially every professional ballet dancer was once a mouse, a snowflake, a flower.