"Nutcracker" nation : how an Old World ballet became a Christmas tradition in the New World / Jennifer Fisher.

Format:

Book

Author/Creator:

Fisher, Jennifer, 1949-

Language:

English

Subjects (All):

Nutcracker (Choreographic work)--History.

Nutcracker (Choreographic work).

Christmas--United States.

Christmas.

History.

United States.

Physical Description:

xix, 230 pages : illustrations ; 22 cm

Place of Publication:

New Haven : Yale University Press, [2003]

Summary:

The Nutcracker is the most popular ballet in the world, adopted and adapted by hundreds of communities across the United States and Canada every Christmas season. In this entertainingly informative book, Jennifer Fisher offers new insights into the Nutcracker phenomenon by examining it as a dance scholar and critic, a former participant, an observer of popular culture, and an interviewer of those who dance, present, and watch the beloved ballet. Fisher traces The Nutcracker's history from its St. Petersburg premiere in 1892 through its emigration to North America in the mid-twentieth century to the many productions of recent years. She notes that after it was choreographed by another Russian immigrant to the New World, George Balanchine, the ballet began to thrive and variegate: Hawaiians added hula, Canadians added hockey, Mark Morris set it in the swinging sixties, and Donald Byrd placed it in Harlem. Americans understood and developed the ballet's themes -- the pain and promise of childhood, the excitement of Christmas, the independence of its heroines Clara and the Sugar Plum Fairy, and the adventure of journeying to unknown lands and finding that "there's no place like home." The dance world underestimates The Nutcracker at its peril, Fisher suggests, because the ballet is one of its most powerfully resonant traditions. After starting life as a Russian ballet based on a German tale about a little girl's imagination, The Nutcracker has become a way for Americans to tell a story about their communal values and themselves.

Contents:

1 The Early Years 3

2 Making Friends at Christmastime 42

3 Fitting In 80

4 Experiences and Relationships 132

5 The Meaning of Life 171.

Notes:

Includes bibliographical references (pages 213-219) and index.

ISBN:

0300097468

OCLC:

51886289