tchaikovskyfan

Easy! THE NUTCRACKER!

Did a little revision.

Oh, just FYI, for the big numbers (1812 Overture, Piano Concerto #1, Romeo & Juliet) it would be the recognizable themes. It wouldn't be the entire concerto or symphony, etc. except for obviously #6.

Not so much a story as a "tribute" ballet. It would most likely be the first of it's kind (that I know of anyway.) I'd hope that my obsession with Tchaikovsky is quite obvious. I was listening to his 6th Symphony, The Pathétique, when suddenly . I built the following 3 act ballet around the 6th Symphony and several other of Tchaikovsky's famous works: What do you think?

Nutcracker: The Motion Picture Bought it and downloading now. Can't wait. Watched the trailer and it looks magnificent. Looks even more stunning than the Balanchine version was. PS. Don't mind the info. Amazon got confused when they listed the movie.

And to give you a little context to go by, here is the Ohio Theatre. (With a couple of pics from the Nutcracker) Ohio Theatre Curtain Ohio Theatre The Nutcracker: Battle against the Mouse King The Nutcracker: Land of Snow

I think that it's appropriate in different situations. For example, whenever i see the Nutcracker in Columbus, OH, it never fails that after the last note of the GPPD has ended, the audience is on their feet. Unfortunately, last year when I went I didn't end up standing. It had been a while since I had been up to the Ohio Theatre to see Nutcracker and I do remember seeing some pretty spectacular PDD, but this one, eh,lackluster to say the least. And not to mention the CSO (Columbus Symphony) sounded out of tune in a few places. It may have been that the seats we had were higher than where we usually sat. And I don't care if it was the last show of the Nutcracker season. I expect PERFECTION on that GPPD in Act II. But I digress. Usually, with applause, it has become a sort of tradition to clap along with the Trepak, encouraged of course by Clara, Nutcracker and Drosseylmeyer. And any dance that has kids in it in Act II, they do anything cute or funny or amazing (one year our Mother Ginger got replaced by kid clowns, and they did some awesome acrobatics. Again, personal taste is the key here. If the audience is wowed by something, I say, why not applaud. The ONLY reason I get upset is when the audience FAILS to applaud. Unless we've all be drawn into the story, I've assumed everyone is asleep and I clap! Regarding curtain calls, if I remember correctly the curtain drops, the stage clears, and, in the case of Nutcracker, we're back in the land of sweets and the cast comes out one by one and we applaud and then the curtain goes down and we continue clapping because we know that immediately after it drops the first time, it's going back up. Full cast bow again, usually accompanied by the Conductor who also gives props to the orchestra. All in all, I do think that there is a time to clap and a time NOT to clap, but as a lot of you have said, the dancers feed off the audience energy. Whether it's by the enthusiastic clapping or seeing the audience on the edge of their seats wanting more, wondering what's going to happen next, I think that if the performance blows you completely out of the water and just completely brings a new perspective of ballet to your life, I think that as long as you're ok with it, it's fine.

Back when I was a kid (1995-ish) BalletMet brought in a choreographer named David Nixon. At that time, I was kinda getting bored by the usual...oh there's the Christmas party, there's the battle, there's the snow forest, there's the land of sweets...the end. It was great and all that, but for some reason, it didn't "do it" for me. David Nixon took Nutcracker to that level. He changed the story only a bit. He added a character named Je t'aime (Clara's cat) and Clara is danced by an adult the entire show. The beginning was the same, party with the Stahlbaum family, Fritz breaks the Nutcracker Drosselmeyer gives to Clara, a little change in the Harlequin/Columbine dolls in that they are actually the Sugar Plum Fairy and her Cavalier, party ends, bedtime, Clara sneaks downstairs, battle with the mouse king, Ratsputtle, who lives to fight another day, travel through the land of snow where Je t'aime and Clara and Nutcracker as well as the sugar plum fairy and Drosselmeyer are kidnapped by Ratsputtle's army and taken back to his lair where Act II begins. Act I had already "done it" for me, but Act II, my god, it was out of this world. At the end of Act I, a scrim came down instead of the main curtain. The scrim was decorated with a huge Nutcracker on it holding a bowl of nuts. About 1 minute into the opening entr'acte of Act II, the lights go out and you can see through this huge nut on the scrim, and as your watch, you see the mouse army carrying the various characters to the "Mouse Hole", Ratsputtle's lair. Whenever I listen to the score of The Nutcracker, I always end up with a big smile across my face when the opening of Act II is played because this was such a magical moment. After we arrive in the mouse hole we find out that not only was the Nutcracker under a spell, which is now broken, but that the Kingdom of Sweets is also under a spell, having been taken over by Ratsputtle and the magic nut. Only way to defeat both Ratsputtle and break the magic nut: have the SPF do the Arabian dance and put Ratsputtle to sleep. Nutcracker uses his sword to crack the nut. Waltz of the flowers, rest of the divertissements, the GPDD with SPF and Cavalier, ending with Clara home with Je t'aime and Nutcracker in her arms. Curtain falls. I think I got most of the details right. It has been at least 9-10 years (this version stopped in 2001) since I saw it in Columbus.

Don't worry. The ones I have in my head are only for a couple of numbers (the beginning of act 2, Arabian dance and Waltz of the Flowers and I remember them like it was yesterday (and this version was performed in Columbus choreographed by David Nixon back in 1995)

Question: Can we use choreography from ballet companies that we've seen? For example, I've seen the Nutcracker in Columbus for the majority of my life and have grown up with two or three different versions of choreography from BalletMet Columbus.EDIT: Quick side note: You completely forgot the Tea (Chinese) dance.

Let's explore each of the 3 separately: Vainonen for the Mariinsky. (Lezhina/Baranov) The only thing that bugs me here is that there are 4 extra cavaliers, turning this pas de deux into a pas de six. However, in parts, they actually do add to the PDD, just unusual for a two-person dance. I also recall seeing versions of other Nutcracker productions where there were characters sitting on the sidelines, but never dancing during the PDD. Grigorovitch for the Bolshoi. (Maximova/Vasiliev) This one is just a complete mess. The dancers are beautiful, very good at what they do, obviously, it's just that the choreography is lacking in parts. What they do accomplish in this dance is very beautiful, just that all the dancers on the stage just add clutter. You have the men with the candelabras, and the flowers are also dancing. Just a very confusing version. Ivanov, staged by Wright for the Royal. (Collier/Dowell) The classic. The Sugar Plum Fairy and her Cavalier OR Clara/Marie and Nutcracker. End of story. All of the PDD's I've ever seen have been done in the Ivanov style. And in this particular clip, the cape used at the end to help the Sugar Plum Fairy go across the floor is reminiscent of Balanchine's PDD ending.

Hi everyone. I've actually never danced in a ballet production (I danced ballet when I was little but that was it) but as a fan of classical music, I have become entwined in a love affair with Tchaikovsky as well as many other wonderful and talented ballet composers. It stems back to my younger years (about 3 or 4 if I remember correctly) when my mom would take me (and later my sister) to the ballet every Christmas in Columbus, OH to see The Nutcracker. While some parents may have worried that I may have been too young to enjoy the Nutcracker, it was always a very exciting and moving experience. Tchaikovsky was a musical genius. While he actually despised the score of the Nutcracker, it has become a score that is celebrated all over the world and has, in my opinion, stood the test of time. The way Tchaikovsky can take you from the light, string filled Overture to a fun march around the house to having you believe that you along with the dancers on stage are shrinking (or the tree is growing) and then witness a battle between the Nutcracker himself and the Mouse King to be topped off by a Waltz of the Snowflakes and a journey to the Kingdom of Sweets where the Sugar Plum Fairy has her subjects perform for you and then performs with her Cavalier a Grand Pas de deux to be finished off with a final waltz and Apotheosis brings back so many wonderful memories. I look forward to talking about many wonderful ballets, especially my favorite. Can you guess which one that is? I also look forward to talking about Tchaikovsky and the other composers who put music to our favorite stories. tchaikovskyfan