The Nutcracker
St. Louis Ballet
Edison Theater
Through December 23
RAC Blogger: Debra Kokorudz

The Nutcracker represents all of my childhood Christmas joy. Just as Clara dreams of the Nutcracker prince, I would dream of being a ballerina on the stage like Anna Pavlova. I grew up taking all sorts of dance classes, but ballet held my attention in a different way. The discipline and athleticism, and maybe a little something about dancing on the TIPS of your TOES in those beautiful costumes! In my small Southern Missouri town, The Nutcracker was the only ballet that I ever got to see. Well, maybe you got to see Swan Lake once every three years in the middle of the night on a Channel 9 pledge drive, but I could always count on The Nutcracker. I would dream of dancing the part of the Sugar Plum Fairy, practicing alone in the studio, creating my own choreography to that incredible score.

The Nutcracker Ballet is actually based on the story “The Nutcracker and the Mouse King” written by E. T. A. Hoffmann in 1816. The ballet we know today came about in the 1890’s when Tchaikovsky was asked to compose the music for this coming of age fairy tale. Funnily enough, Tchaikovsky participated reluctantly, feeling the story was not good subject matter for a ballet. Despite his feelings, he managed to come up with what is now one of the most instantly recognizable classical scores ever composed, inextricably connected with Christmas. So much so that you’ll hear it in countless commercials at Christmas time, for everything from cookies to Cadillacs. (Are there really people out there who get cars for Christmas?)

This year the St. Louis Ballet has put a local twist on the festivities by setting the ballet in 1904 World’s Fair St. Louis. Clara’s story remains the same, but you’ll see some familiar World’s Fair architecture in the backdrops, some of which remains, and some is long gone. I thought this was a great idea, because let’s face it, ballet is not the most wildly popular event in St Louis. But loads of families bring their children to this production, and using the World’s Fair is a great way to connect with the adult audience and engage them in the production in a new way. And check out the nod to the invention of the ice cream cone in the palace of the sweets…

There are two things about this ballet I think make it so enchanting. First of all, the children - both in the audience and on the stage. They can relate to the material, and watching the other children on stage further connects them to the performance. They understand the interaction at the party, they can picture a dream world in which a mouse king would fight with a nutcracker, and they can imagine that sugar plums, fairies, and Arabian coffee (my favorite part!) would come to life and dance for them.

Secondly, the music is undeniably fantastic. I don’t know if part of it is because we have all connected it with Christmas our whole lives, but it is just boundlessly joyful. I want to jump out of my seat and grand jete across the stage along with the dancers as soon as I hear it.

So, dear readers, with this ode to childhood dreams of holidays, heroes and sweets, I wish you a happy belated Channuka, a Merry Christmas, a thoughtful and enriching Kwanzaa, and a prosperous New Year. I’ll take a short break for my own celebrations, and return in January with the Black Rep’s production of Othello.