George Balanchine 's The Nutcracker

A. In Dance of the Sugar Plum Fairy, Tchaikovsky’s main music characteristic is Russian folk music. He does like to use some elements from French, Italian, and German music.

For the history of Russian Classical ballet, it originated in a group of dance academies in Moscow and St Petersburg in the eighteenth century. At first the dancers were from poor backgrounds - usually from orphanages - but the Tsars were particular ballet enthusiasts and so the profile grew. However, in the nineteenth century some of the best French and Italian dancers and teachers went to Russia and ballet developed considerably more than in Western Europe where opera was preferred. It was under this climate that Russian ballet led the way in classical dance with such famous stars as Anna Pavlova, Mikhail Foskine and the legendary Nijinsky, who all trained with the Frenchman Marius Petipa at the St Petersburg Imperial Ballet.

In modern times, Pyotr Ilyich Tchaikovsky’s ballet, The Nutcracker, is a Christmas classic. With memorable songs and beautiful instrumentation, many cannot imagine Christmas without it. Dance companies perform the ballet year after year with spectators coming to watch annually. There have even been LGBT, hip hop, and Jewish adaptations to the popular ballet (Begley). Thousands of musicians and dancers all over the world perform it to add to the excitement and cheer of the holidays.

While observing this dance ballet, there were many things that caught my attention. First, the theater itself was extremely large, and the stage itself was big, and the dancers had plenty of room to move across the stage and perform their routines. There were many dancers, and they all played various roles that ranged from Clara, Fritz, Herr Drosselmeyer, the Rat King, the Nutcracker, the Sugar Plum Fairy and her Cavalier, and many more. All of the performers wore vivid costumes

Today, I am seeing “Rodgers and Hammerstein’s Cinderella”, starring Brandy and Whitney Houston. I am viewing this in M.O.T Charter High School’s theater classroom. I am seeing this with my fellow theater classmates. Although I have seen this film before , I am very thrilled to hear Whitney Houston and Brandy sing “Impossible/It’s Possible”! The three elements I am discussing in this piece are costuming, set, and singing.

Earlier this year I was able to take part in a local production of Pippin the Musical, by the South Coast Coral and Arts Society (SCCAS). SCCAS has been performing in Victor Harbor for over 60 years and have produced many memorable productions, such as the Wizard of Oz, The Sound of Music, Jesus Christ Superstar, and most recently My Fair Lady where I had the pleasure of playing Freddy Eynsford-Hill the main love interest. Winning many local awards and a few state awards SCCAS has proved that they are ready to step up into more complex and dynamic productions. Robert Bell, was very gracious to receive the Adelaide theatre guide award for his performance as Jesus in Jesus Christ Superstar, was determined to bring something fresh, and exciting

Which choreographer created several famous full length ballets, including Sleeping Beauty, Swan Lake, and The Nutcracker?

Another one of the main differences between Russian ballets and Balanchine ballets are the people or items of importance that might inspire a ballet to be created. There are so many ballets that have been inspired by things like old folklores or ancient fairy-tales. These ballets are likely to be of Russian origin. Many ballets such as Cinderella, The Sleeping Beauty, or even The Nutcracker are just few of the many examples of Russian originated ballets based on fairy-tales. “Petipa’s later works showed the way to much of the innovation of the future, and the choreography and pedagogy of Balanchine (though carried on primarily in the United States) represent the most important creative response to the legacy of Petipa’s nineteenth-century ballet academy - and the most significant twentieth-century development of Russian ballet traditions.” (Scholl 2) However, Balanchine was not so quick to rely on thing such as old stories or folkloric tales. Many of Balanchine’s ballets rely on the things that were around

Tchaikovsky’s “The Nutcracker” and Stravinsky’s “Rite of Spring “ are two of the most influential ballets to ever be recorded. Their ballets have been played and duplicated for many years. I will start this paper with a summary of each composer which will include where they are from culturally, geographically and musically. Then I talk about each ballet. Where it was written, the story behind each piece, and its reception now and its reception at the time it was published. I will also include the popularity of each ballet in other forms such as Disney. Finally, I will provide a detailed concert report of each ballet.

Women in the era of Queen Elizabeth I were often portrayed through stereotypes such as, “The Good and the Badde” by Nicholas Breton. In this work women have desired traits such as loyalty, obedience, and innocence. Undesirable traits would be just the opposite, disobedience, raunchiness, treachery, loudness, and being outspoken. The play, “The Taming of the Shrew” by William Shakespeare, plays heavily to these stereotypes with the two female main characters; Bianca and Kate. Whereas Kate plays the Un-quiet one in the beginning, but transitions to more of a quiet one or the good wife while Bianca plays The Virgin.

Listening to Music class has taught me a new way to listen and enjoy music. I have learned how to differentiate the melodies, rhythms, and instruments in a song. It has also introduced me to different genres in the music world, aside from what is usually played on the radio. I can now attend any concert, listen to any genre, or watch any ballet and easily recognize the many specific aspects the music being played has. Ballets are very interesting to me. The audience is able to enjoy the music being played as it is telling a story, and being acted out through the performer’s body language. In the two ballets, The Rite of Spring and The Nutcracker, a great story is told in both referencing the many great dynamics music has. These two specific ballets are written by different composers, and each one of them have certain conditions they were written under. As well as different receptions, popularity, and development. The Rite of Spring and The Nutcracker’s differences has made some sort of an impact in the performing world back then as well as now.

Renowned choreographer Alonzo King is the Balanchine of a new style of dance, his style of dance, a style shying away from the expected and catapulting its audience into a state of wonderment. Alonzo King uses sharp lines intertwined with severe movements all engaging a classical technique in order to create movements, unseen to the dance world. King’s impressive résumé includes having trained with a number of world-renowned ballet companies, and setting works on an even more substantial number of companies, along with establishing his own celebrated company: Alonzo King’s LINES Ballet in San Francisco, California.

One of the most important and influential people in the world of ballet is George Balanchine. He became a legend long before he died. He brought the standards of dance up to a level that had never been seen before, and he created a new audience for ballet. Balanchine was one of the greatest and most prolific choreographers in ballet history, choreographing at least 300 ballets; he was rivaled in quantity only by Jules Perrot and Marius Petipa.

Tchaikovsky wrote The Nutcracker at the request of the Director of the Imperial Theatres, Ivan Vsevolozhskii (Poznansky, 2012). The Nutcracker is based on E. T. A. Hoffmann’s fairy tale, of which Tchaikovsky was fond of. However he did not like using The Nutcracker for a ballet scenario. The ballet tells the story of a young girl, Clara, who is given a nutcracker for Christmas. Clara then falls asleep and dreams the nutcracker fights an evil mouse king. The nutcracker then turns into a prince and takes her to a land of snow, where he tells her the story of the battle with the army of mice. She does several dances for the Prince to celebrate his triumph in battle. She then awakens and learns it was all just a dream (Green, n.d.). The Nutcracker was

'It seems to me, my dear friend, that the music of this ballet will be one of my best creations. The subject is so poetic, so grateful for music, that 1 have worked on it with enthusiasm and written it with the warmth and enthusiasm upon which the worth of a composition always depends." - Tchaikovsky, to Nadia von Meck.