Visions of sugar plums danced in their heads: The Nutcracker's lasting holiday appeal
Fun facts about the beloved ballet: From being panned at its premiere to featuring Penny Oleksiak this year
A fairy-tale transformation, adorable dancing kids, sumptuous costumes, a major earworm of a score and famous faces making silly cameos — it's easy to see why holiday classic The Nutcracker is an audience favourite that's often billed the world's most performed ballet.
As the dance world's annual tradition returns to the stage, revived by myriad troupes for the holidays, we take a look at fun facts about the ballet.
From panned production to annual favourite
Most productions of The Nutcracker are derived from German author E.T.A. Hoffmann's dark 1816 story The Nutcracker and the Mouse King and Alexandre Dumas' more family-friendly French adaptation of the tale from 1844.
Legendary choreographer Marius Petipa created the very first Nutcracker ballet in Russia, with famed composer Pyotr Ilyich Tchaikovsky. The duo had previously created the hit ballet Sleeping Beauty, so their new collaboration drew a sold-out audience to its premiere at St. Petersburg's Mariinsky Theatre in December 1892.
However, that original Nutcracker was largely panned, drawing lukewarm reviews at best. Still, the Tsar at the time was a fan, so it stayed in the company's repertoire. Years later, famed Russians popularized the ballet abroad.
Today, The Nutcracker is ubiquitous in December, performed every year (especially in North America) and representing a significant chunk of annual ticket sales for many ballet companies.
Celebrity cameos
A fun tradition for many Nutcracker productions is inviting notable figures onstage for walk-on roles. In Canada, rock stars, authors, pro athletes, astronauts, politicians, media personalities and local heroes have all ventured onstage.
Famous faces have portrayed cannon dolls, party guests and even a moose in Canadian Nutcracker productions — with guests including Margaret Atwood, Rob Ford, Chris Hadfield and musician Steven Page. Hockey stars Olli Jokinen and Mats Sundin have even joined in the fun.
Prominent Nutcracker cameos this year include Olympian Penny Oleksiak, Kim's Convenience creator and star Ins Choi and Paul Sun-Hyung Lee, children's musician Fred Penner and Winnipeg Blue Bomber Maurice Leggett.
Tchaikovsky's blockbuster
Tchaikovsky is known for countless classical blockbusters — he's the guy behind the swoony music of Swan Lake, the heartbreaking opera Eugene Onegin and that bombastic 1812 Overture, for starters.
Still, his Nutcracker score has become one of his most famous compositions — hardwired into the North American consciousness in part thanks to Walt Disney, who used the composer's condensed, concert-length Nutcracker Suite for his early animated movie Fantasia.
Local flavour
But with so many Nutcracker productions around these days, how does one choose which to attend?
Customizing with local flavour is perhaps the most popular way companies create a standout Nutcracker — for instance Ballet Jorgen's ultra-Canadian version, which features backdrops created from famous landscapes by artists like Tom Thompson and includes loons, bears, raccoons and other familiar Canuck critters.
That the ballet's story centres on children also means that troupes performing The Nutcracker typically cast talented youngsters — often from nearby dance schools — to share the stage with the Sugar Plum Fairy, her Cavalier, Clara and the Nutcracker himself.
Creative spin on a classic
Over the decades, countless choreographers have put their own personal stamp on The Nutcracker, including ballet giants George Balanchine, Rudolf Nureyev and Mikhail Baryshnikov.
More recently, contemporary dance world figures such as Mark Morris, James Kudelka and Debbie Allen have all created refreshing reinterpretations of the original.
