ballet

the nutcracker essays i had to do for my dance class bc im still spiteful

the most beautiful moment in life- 12/9/23

overview

well well well. if it isnt THE SIX GODDAMN ESSAYS THAT HAD TO BE THREE PAGES LONG FOR MY BALLET CLASS OR I FAIL. yeah i had to do these to make up for my EXCUSED absences from when i had MONO bc my teacher considers excused absences to be unexcused. well, ayways. yeah. six essays over different dances from the nutcracker! now, i LOVE the nutcracker. but writing 4,825 words about the ballet will make you will wanna cry. the dances i wrote over were: chocolate (spanish dance), coffee (arabian dance), tea (chinese dance), trepak (russian dance), mother ginger and the polichinelles, and finally the dance of the sugar plum fairy. lets get straight into it shall we?

chocolate (spanish dance)

The Spanish Dance otherwise known as the Chocolate Dance is one of the various dances that is performed in The Nutcracker during Clara's journey to the fantasy land. The reason this dance is also referred to as The Chocolate Dance is because chocolate, in the 1800-1900s, was considered a very fine and expensive dessert that was mostly appreciated in Spain. The Nutcracker story is about a small girl named Clara who, on Christmas, receives a Nutcracker doll from her godfather during her familys famous Christmas party. However, once Clara falls asleep, she has a dream where many magical events take place. Some of these include sequences such as the Nutcracker defeating the Mouse King in a battle, the Nutcracker transforming into a handsome prince who takes Clara to an amazing fantasy land, Clara meeting many different people in the fantasy land like the Flowers, the Sugar Plum Fairy, the Arabian Dancers, the Chinese Dancers, and the Russian Dancers.

The music of the Spanish Dance has the influence of a fandango rhythm and is in three-fourths time signature. The music seems to be a waltz melody that is introduced by a trumpet while castanets accompany throughout. The music is a lively allegro brilliante with a swing-like vibe. It slows down in the middle and gets softer and then finally gets louder and faster towards the end. The song lasts about one (1) minute and thirteen (13) seconds.

For the dancers themselves, there is usually at least one male and one female dancer, but sometimes there will be two female dancers and one male. Red, yellow, black, and white are the most common colors used in the Chocolate Dance. The male dancer is dressed very similar to a matador. He has a red velvet tailcoat with gold embroidery. The woman wears usually a red dress with a corset-like top that has sleeves that fall to her shoulders. She has multilayered skirts much like Flamenco dancers. The props that are used are fans and castanets that give the dance an additional flourish.

The choreography of the Spanish Dance is obviously very inspired by Flamenco dance and Spanish music. Flamenco contains lots of flair, pride, and passion which is demonstrated through the dancers arm and hand gestures. Overall the moves are sharp and syncopated. The dance contains lots of big jumps, leaps, and turns. There are lots of moves involving arching backs, mobile shoulders, and head tossing which is Flamenco in origin. Some other dance moves would be battements, assemble, lunges, and lots of skirt flipping and turns. The dance includes quite a lot of partner work as it is usually a pas de deux.

Some of my best friends Eliana and Hailey did the Spanish dance at my school. The dance was really beautiful and fun to watch. Eliana says that, *I enjoyed the costumes, one of the more flattering I had. The boys costumes felt a little more cultural appropriation-y because of the matador-esque thing.* I sincerely agree. I do feel that many of the costumes are stereotypical approaches to culture. I asked Eliana her thoughts on the problematic nature of The Nutcracker; to which she responded, *I find the Spanish dance less problematic overall than the other ones because it is more of an interpretation rather than a mockery of stereotype,* she continues, *its also different because not only are Spaniards European, they are not a typically oppressed, stereotyped, or discriminated against group. The problems with the Arabian and Chinese dances stem from racism and stereotypes inflicted on these communities by the Western (US and Europe) world.* Eliana helped me understand that both the Russian Dance and Spanish Dance are about groups that are not usually discriminated against. The creator of The Nutcracker is Russian, and Spainairds are not considered oppressed, while other groups such as Arabs and Chinese people are oppressed, stereotyped, and discriminated against. The Western world at this point did not understand anything about other cultures from their own other than racial and cultural stereotypes.

coffee (arabian dance)

The Arabian Dance otherwise known as the Coffee Dance is one of the various dances that is performed in the Nutcracker during Claras journey to the fantasy land. It is called The Coffee Dance because the dance itself is supposed to be set in the Middle East in the Arabian peninsula where coffee was first originally brewed. The Nutcracker story is about a small girl named Clara who, on Christmas, receives a Nutcracker doll from her godfather during her familys famous Christmas party. However, once Clara falls asleep, she has a dream where many magical events take place. Some of these include sequences such as the Nutcracker defeating the Mouse King in a battle, the Nutcracker transforming into a handsome prince who takes Clara to an amazing fantasy land, Clara meeting many different people in the fantasy land like the Flowers, the Sugar Plum Fairy, the Arabian Dancers, the Chinese Dancers, and the Russian Dancers.

As soon as the music starts, the energy of the ballet shifts to something slower and more sensual even. The music of the Arabian section is slower and steady with a constant pulsing rhythm and a snaking melody that contains an English Horn and cymbals. It is a mysterious, dark, and sweet-sounding melody. The composition consists of oboes and violins, which capture a snake-charmer-like vibe.

The Coffee Dance is a dance of sensuality and seduction. It has elements of mystery and bewitching beauty. The performers, usually a man and a woman, come onto the stage slowly and smoothly. The man typically wears no shirt but harem pants with tan jazz shoes and arm bangles. Sometimes he will also wear some head jewelry. The woman usually wears a bra-like shirt and once again flowy harem pants. The lady has more jewelry on and usually has a crown or jeweled headdress. The dancer most often has on ballet shoes but will sometimes be barefoot depending on that production's choreography. She will have some form of chains or beads along with her hair up in a bun or covered by a wrap.

The choreography of the dance changes but most of the common moves stay the same. There is lots of stretching, flexibility, and partner moves. All of the moves are slow, yet very powerful. Usually, there are many acrobatic portions of the dance as the male dancer does multiple lifts, holds, and assisted turns. A lot of the dance has to do with the atmosphere the dancers create rather than the actual moves themselves. One of the most iconic moves from this piece is where one or both arms are bent at the elbow with the palm facing the sky and the leg in attitude and often on releve. Most of the poses in the dance take inspiration from belly dances which originated in Egypt. Also, a lot of the arm poses are reminiscent of Egyptian hieroglyphics and Egyptian dances.

The Arabian dance can be seen as outdated in the way it stereotypes and generalizes Arab culture. The Arabian and Chinese Dances are seen as the most problematic of the dances performed in the second act. One of the controversial things is how the dance is even labeled as Arabic when it often uses lots of Indian and Egyptian stereotypical moves. When it comes to representing certain cultures, ballet studios have a complicated past and experiences with authenticity and often result in stereotypes instead. Some ballet studios have experimented and tried different ways of being less offensive and offering an actual representation of these cultural dances. Now, why havent these dances been changed at all? There seem to be a few reasons as to why. Some people seem to say that it isnt fair to change an iconic Christmas tradition. However, many Christmas traditions have been changed in the past and have been examined and determined to be controversial. Another argument is that the dances are, in fact, not condescending and arent examples of cultural imperialism. It seems that The Nutcracker is such a loved and adored tradition that it is hard for people to admit to some of its outdated imagery. These controversial arguments aside, personally I enjoy watching the dance. At my high school, the ballet studio performs The Nutcracker every December. I remember very distinctly watching a wonderful performance of The Arabian Dance done by Jasmine and Vie. Jazmine really embodies the contortionist aspect and all the attention was on her and her hypnotizing movements. Vie allowed Jazmine to have the spotlight for many main parts, acting as the dutiful male partner, but ended up having some shining moments of their own. I enjoyed our schools production because it seemed less ethnically themed and more like a jazz routine even. It was executed both gracefully and without being insensitive.

tea (chinese dance)

The Chinese Dance otherwise known as the Tea Dance is one of the various dances that is performed in the Nutcracker during Claras journey to the fantasy land. It is called The Tea Dance because the dancers are supposed to act as tea bearers, presenting Clara and The Prince with tea. Tea is based on the following motions that indicate picking tea in fields in Southeast Asia. The Nutcracker story is about a small girl named Clara who, on Christmas, receives a Nutcracker doll from her godfather during her familys famous Christmas party. However, once Clara falls asleep, she has a dream where many magical events take place. Some of these include sequences such as the Nutcracker defeating the Mouse King in a battle, the Nutcracker transforming into a handsome prince who takes Clara to an amazing fantasy land, Clara meeting many different people in the fantasy land like the Flowers, the Sugar Plum Fairy, the Arabian Dancers, the Chinese Dancers, and the Russian Dancers.

The dancers themselves have very controversial costumes and props. The female dancers often wear red or white kimonos, even though the garment itself is Japanese, not Chinese in origin. They wear silk pants and put their hair up in buns. The props usually consist of stereotypical Asian parasols and fans. The most stereotypical and culturally offensive part of the costume has to be the makeup. Oftentimes the makeup consists of elongating the eyes to make them more *Asian* and if there is a male dancer, adding a Fu Manchu mustache. These are incredibly hurtful stereotypes and add nothing to the dance.

The music of the dance itself is an upbeat allegro with flute and piccolo along with strings and an ostinato. The time signature is three-fourths time and has bells to signify. The music of this dance has very little to do with actual authentic Chinese music. The lack of authenticity proves the exoticism through these *ethnic* dances. Exoticism is where people are enthralled by the ideas and styles of a faraway culture and makes the people of the region seem far more *exotic.* The artists usually glamorize and stereotype these cultures.

The actual dancing consists of sharp yet small and intricate sections of footwork. There are hops on pointe and quick beats. However, in productions of The Nutcracker, the dance is either presented: with grace and smoothness of classical Chinese dance or a jaunty side-to-side movement of Chinese folk dance. These both get very exaggerated and lead to many offensive moves. In terms of ballet moves there are jumps, pas de bourrée, hops, small kicks, hops, and twirling of the parasol. A lot of the dancing is done on point. The choreography is meant to represent the lines and patterns of tea fields and how tea pickers would interact with one another while working.

There are horrible Chinese stereotypes in this dance that are very offensive. Many ballet studios continue to use the original choreography such as holding two fingers together which represents chopsticks and excessive bowing. Some dancers even make their eyes appear more slanted as mentioned before. The male dancers often wear rice-paddy hats and a Fu Manchu-style mustache. The Chinese tradition of bound feet turned into shuffling across the stage. The tradition of bowing became exaggerated head-bopping. Finally, in this culture of understanding stereotypes, many audiences of The Nutcracker find these *exotic* dances to be very offensive and culturally insensitive. There have been many endeavors to reconstruct these characters but they have been so heavily forced into these racial caricatures and stereotypes. However, people are still vying for a solution. An organization called *Final Bow for Yellow Face,* is making attempts and even providing solutions to these issues mentioned above. Their statement about their mission is that they believe *it is time for us to replace caricature with character; its time for Yellowface in ballet to take a Final Bow* (Final Bow for Yellow Face). Some of the solutions provided are for the categories of choreography, costuming, and makeup. For costuming they propose questions that ballet studios should ask themselves when designing the costumes for the performance. Such as: *Are the designs based on primary sources? If they are from a secondary source, what is the context?* I feel very hopeful knowing that many people are able to see the controversy in The Nutcracker and instead of shutting it down, they are coming up with alternatives.

trepak (russian dance)

The Russian Dance (Trepak) is one of the various dances that is performed in the Nutcracker during Claras journey to the fantasy land. The Nutcracker story is about a small girl named Clara who, for Christmas, receives a Nutcracker doll from her godfather during her familys famous Christmas party. However, once Clara falls asleep, she has a dream where many magical events take place. Some of these include sequences such as the Nutcracker defeating the Mouse King in a battle, the Nutcracker transforming into a handsome prince who takes Clara to an amazing fantasy land, Clara meeting many different people in the fantasy land like the Flowers, the Sugar Plum Fairy, the Arabian Dancers, the Chinese Dancers, and the Russian Dancers.

The Russian Dance is based on a traditional Russian and Ukrainian folk dance called the trepak. The trepak, also written as tropak, was written as a Cossack social dance and was performed during celebratory and anniversary events. As for the actual music of the tropak itself, the tempo gradually speeds up throughout the dance. Tchaikovskys Trepak in particular uses AABA format and has a tempo of molto vivace-prestissimo. The time signature of the piece is two-fourths time signature and the key is in G major (Wikipedia Tropak). Tchaikovskys Trepak is usually performed by men and contains a move called a prisiadka which is when you kick your legs out from a squatting position (Bountiful Facets Model of the "Russian Dance").

The story of the Russian Dance is that Russian nesting dolls, also known as Matryoshkas, follow the Mandarin tea (The Chinese Dance) with dancing and leap to a high-energy trepak dance. The dance contains many stamps, claps, and steps performed in parallel. Also, the feet and legs are not in turn out as they so often are in ballet. There are many jumps, including ones with tucked legs and toe-touches. Other elements of the dance have shunts low to the ground in grand plie, and many other tricks like the famous coffee grinder.

The duration of the dance and music lasts about one minute and throughout this minute here are some of the common dance moves. Oftentimes it starts with the three males coming onto the stage. They will begin by usually alternating doing toe-touches and pirouettes. There are lots of moments in the dance where there will be small moments for the dancers to pose in a *Russian* fashion. Many ballet moves are used like tour jetes, pas de bourree, and even fouette turns. With the fouette turns usually one dancer takes the center and produces an impressive amount of turns. The ending and ramping up of the music leads to lots of squat kicks, parallel barrel rolls, clapping of hands, and toe-touches. This one minute of dancing is very intense and exciting, causing the dancers to have to be high energy for the entire duration of the dance and still pull off these difficult and beautiful moves. The meshing of ballet moves and trepak moves creates this beautiful blend of grace, high energy, and overall fun. The Russian Dance, for this very reason, is one of the beloved in the entire Nutcracker.

As for costuming and set, this section of Claras dream often takes place in a Palace of Sweets and each section of this act is related to sweets in some way. For example, the Russian Dance, they are related to candy canes. In newer productions of The Nutcracker, sometimes this means the dancers will have a candy-cane-like prop or a candy-cane-colored hula hoop. They often wear red and white striped clothing (the coloring of the stripes changes based on where you see the performance, some being even green and pink striped) with either ballet slippers or even socks. The addition of props allows dancers to add even more tricks and energy to the dance. Typically, in larger and newer productions, there are also more than three people, and there instead is usually a star figure who is center stage and does the hardest tricks while other dancers are up-stage and performing fewer tricks and complicated moves. In older versions of The Nutcracker the three dancers are usually dressed in *Russian* clothing, usually with some sort of hat, red coat, and the iconic black calf boots worn in the earlier performances of the show. There are many differences between the newer productions of The Nutcracker as mentioned earlier. One important thing that is different is that older productions seem to treasure the trepak way of dancing and include more of those traditional squats, kicks, and claps; while newer productions favor the candy theme and have more than three dancers.

Overall, the Russian Dance from The Nutcracker is a classic even among such an iconic ballet. Personally, this one has always been one of my favorites. When I was younger I went to The Nutcracker every year for Christmas, and I always called this one *the fast dance.* Which, overall, isn't entirely inaccurate as the tempo does increase throughout the song. Anyway, this song will always hold a special place in my heart.

mother ginger and the polichinelles

The Mother Ginger dance is one of the various dances that is performed in the Nutcracker during Claras journey to the fantasy land. The Nutcracker story is about a small girl named Clara who, for Christmas, receives a Nutcracker doll from her godfather during her familys famous Christmas party. However, once Clara falls asleep, she has a dream where many magical events take place. Some of these include sequences such as the Nutcracker defeating the Mouse King in a battle, the Nutcracker transforming into a handsome prince who takes Clara to an amazing fantasy land, Clara meeting many different people in the fantasy land like the Flowers, the Sugar Plum Fairy, the Arabian Dancers, the Chinese Dancers, and the Russian Dancers.

The music for Mother Gingers appearance has a tempo indication of allegro giocoso-andante-allegro vivo. This means the music has a fun and playful entrance, which then changes to a more moderately slow pace to match the waltz done by Mother Gingers children, and then becomes fast and bright at the end. The song lasts for about two (2) minutes and thirty-two (32) seconds.

Costume-wise, Mother Ginger is iconic for her gigantic skirt and the little clown children that come out from underneath said skirt. The top half of Mother Gingers costume is usually some type of corset with puffy sleeves, a long skirt, and a bonnet. The color choice of what Ginger wears changes from company to company but the children that come out from under the skirt always match her colors. For example, Mother Ginger would be wearing a white bonnet, a purple corset, and the huge skirt is a cerulean blue with little bits of light blue fabric. Then, the children would wear a blue leotard, a purple skirt or tutu, and ribbons or small bonnet-like headbands. For the makeup, Mother Ginger has lots of makeup caked on, some of which includes lots of blush, eye shadow, and lipstick. This is heavily exaggerated when Mother Ginger is played by a man.

One of the most important aspects of Mother Ginger is her enormous hoop skirt. Getting Mother Ginger ready for her grand entrance requires many more people than just the dancer for Ginger themselves. I was able to get an inside look at the situation thanks to one of my best friends, Ava, playing Mother Ginger in our high schools production of The Nutcracker. Ava explains that the costume, *was basically a flat wooden board just big enough for me to sit on, with a wooden frame that looked like a birdcage for the frame of the skirt-I was probably sitting 10-15 feet in the air. I was already wearing a skirt with my costume, so backstage (in pitch darkness), I had to climb a ladder to get up on the platform.* Ava goes on to explain, *Someone would be behind me and help me stand on the little wooden board that was also my seat. From there, I had to tuck my skirt under me and sit down, dangling my legs over the edge-basically sitting in it like it was a massive high chair with no safety bars.* I asked Ava how she would get the skirt on and how she was put onto the stage. Ava replied, *Once I was seated, whoever was on the ladder behind me would reach around and hook the waistline of the huge skirt attached to the apparatus around my waist, so it looked like I was wearing the massive skirt. Once I was safely seated and strapped in, two people would get behind the Mother Ginger apparatus to move it onstage. They waited during the entire number behind the skirt until it was time to pull me back offstage. Once offstage, the ladder would be set up behind me again. Someone would climb the ladder to unfasten the skirt and help me stand up. I would then move to the ladder and climb down-all by nothing more than a flashlight, and sometimes not even that.* Ava is able to give a spectacular insight into not just the costume, but the stressful and difficult reality of the Mother Ginger costume.

The Mother Ginger sequence is mostly danced by children, as Mother Ginger is only able to move her face, arms, and maybe a small bit of her upper torso. The children come out from under Gingers skirt one by one. The dance movements for the children are simpler, such as spring points, sways, and even cartwheels. Sometimes there are even some balances, sousus, pique, tour jete, retire, and leg kicks. At the end of the dance, all the kids will pique hop back under Mother Gingers skirt.

Apparently, the appearance of Mother Ginger is sometimes seen as controversial. Because the Mother Ginger dance is a divertissement, it is a distraction from more of the serious roles of the ballet, thereby the Mother Ginger section needs to have a bit of comedy to it. There is a factor of hilarity and cuteness in the dance which provides the audience a break from some of the more intense scenes. In traditional Nutcracker productions, Mother Ginger is played by a man and this is where some of the controversy starts as the casting of Mother Ginger is actually a political piece of propaganda. Mother Ginger, in many large productions, will have a flamboyant and sassy attitude with the addition of a curly mustache. This aspect of Mother Ginger is a caricature of what the creator considered French men to be like. The creator of The Nutcracker is Russian, and during the time when this ballet was created, Russia didnt like France very much. So, the created made Mother Ginger a cross-dressing-homosexual to state that this is what all French men are and in fact arent even real men. In addition, if you look at the Trepak or Russian Dance in the same set, it will show the dancers doing spectacular jumps, kicks, toe touches to high-energy music. This is supposed to represent the most *masculine* aspects of ballet to show that Russia has strong, powerful, real men compared to French men.

I was very honored to get to see my friend, Ava, as mentioned before, in this role. Although there is not much dancing in terms of being Mother Ginger herself, it is one of the main roles in the show. She has admitted that it was a fun role and she had a good time. She was slightly nervous due to some issues with her ankles and feet but she was delighted to be able to be part of the show with her fellow juniors without having to worry too hard about pushing or injuring herself. It was delightful to see the younger kids, playing Mother Gingers kids, dance and have fun on stage in a carefree manner.

the dance of the sugar plum fairy

The Dance of the Sugar Plum Fairy is one of the various dances that are performed in the Nutcracker during Claras journey to the fantasy land. The Nutcracker story is about a small girl named Clara who, for Christmas, receives a Nutcracker doll from her godfather during her familys famous Christmas party. However, once Clara falls asleep, she has a dream where many magical events take place. Some of these include sequences such as the Nutcracker defeating the Mouse King in a battle, the Nutcracker transforming into a handsome prince who takes Clara to an amazing fantasy land, Clara meeting many different people in the fantasy land like the Flowers, the Sugar Plum Fairy, the Arabian Dancers, the Chinese Dancers, and the Russian Dancers.

The most common costume worn by Sugar Plum dancers is a rose gold leotard with a pink tutu and both are quite bedazzled. They also usually wear pink tights, pointe shoes, and some sort of jewelry such as a crown or necklace.

The music is very important to the Dance of the Sugar Plum Fairy. The choreographer of The Nutcracker, Marius Petipa, stated that for the Sugar Plum Fairy, he wanted the music to sound like *drops of water shooting from a fountain.* A mystical almost dreamlike song that works incredibly well with the choreography and story. The instruments used in the song consist of the flute, oboe, cor anglais, clarinet, bass clarinet, bassoon, horn, the string family, and the most special instrument the celesta. The sound a celest makes is similar to a piano mixed with a glockenspiel. The *heavenly* sound the celest produces is what brings the air of magic and enchantment to The Dance of the Sugar Plum Fairy. The music is a combination of a homophonic piece and a polyphonic piece. Homophony is where multiple voices are harmonically moving together at the same pace while polyphony is multiple voices with separate melodic rhythms and lines. The song is constantly in crescendos and decrescendos. The melody of the Dance of the Sugar Plum Fairy has a very chromatic melody line, which means the song has many accidentals. This makes this music special as many compositions arent made this way.

The choreography in the Sugar Plum dance consists of many soft and light movements. The dance contains many short point steps, petit battements, and attitudes in various combinations. At the end, the dancer does many spins in a circular formation. Different dancers do this in different ways. The final manege offers many possibilities, pique, step-up, and chaine turns. Some dancers like to jump, pique turns, or coupe jetes.