The Nutcracker
Bluegrass Youth Ballet 2017
Performance Guide
In just a few weeks, your students will visit The Singletary Center for the Arts to experience a live dance performance by Bluegrass Youth Ballet. BYB’s version of The Nutcracker is an abridged version adapted specifically with children in mind. Please refer to the story of The Nutcracker in One Act below to familiarize yourself and your students with this performance. Open the Nutcracker game to learn more about the music and dances you will see. The performance lasts about one hour and 10 minutes with a question and answer session (10 minutes) at the end.
The Story
On a cold wintry Christmas Eve Clara’s family is trimming the tree and exchanging gifts. Clara’s mother receives a beautiful necklace, Clara’s father receives a magician’s set, and Clara is presented with a Nutcracker doll! Things get a little out of hand as Clara’s father pretends to be a magician. Soon, the Christmas Eve magic comes to an end and Clara must go to bed. She begs to take her new doll with her, but she must leave the Nutcracker behind. The hour grows late, and as Clara’s mother and father go to bed, Clara sneaks back to find her Nutcracker doll! She falls asleep with the Nutcracker in her arms.
Clara is awakened by a mouse stealing her Nutcracker as the entire living room is transformed into a battlefield where the horrible Rat Queen fights the Nutcracker. The Rat Queen is about to stab the Nutcracker when Clara takes her shoe off and hits the Rat Queen, confusing him greatly. The fierce battle ends when the Nutcracker fatally hurts the Rat Queen. Clara's distress is dissipated when a lovely Frost Dancer comes to soothe her. Soon, what once was Clara’s living room, is transformed into a frosted land where Clara meets the Snow Queen and is presented with her handsome Nutcracker prince.
The Land of Sweets
Divertissement - A Break in the Action
In the second section of The Nutcracker Ballet, the Prince escorts Clara to the Land of Sweets where they are welcomed by the Sugar Plum Fairy. This begins the diverstissement. In ballet and opera, a divertissement creates a pause or break in the action. These dances are often considered the highlights of the ballet, even though very little happens in the storyline. When the Prince describes their daring battle with the mice army, she rewards them with a celebration of dances. Different nationalities are represented by the dances of the sweets. When the ballet was created, several foreign delicacies were very special and rare. People did not travel the world frequently, so foreign products were much harder to get. The dances performed by the sweets represent delicacies that were considered special enough to be a part of Clara’s fantasy world. The dancers' costumes resemble the "sweets" they bring from their countries.
● Spanish Dance: Chocolate
● Arabian Dance: Coffee
● Chinese Dance: Tea
● Russian Dance: Candy Canes
● Mother Ginger: Bon-bons
● Reed Flutes: Marzipan
Activity:
Click on the link below to play a magical Nutcracker game. Listen to each clip of music. Then guess which country you believe is represented by that song. Along the way, you will learn more about the countries represented, the delicacies, and the dances that you will see during the live performance.
Who was Pyotr Ilyich Tchaikovsky?
Russian composer Pyotr Ilyich Tchaikovsky was of the Romantic Era and composed the music for the ballet The Nutcracker in 1891-1892. He was born on May 7, 1840 and died on November 6, 1893. His music has come to be known and loved for its rich harmonies and stirring melodies. Tchaikovsky is most known for his ballets: Swan Lake, Sleeping Beauty, and The Nutcracker.
Did you know...
- Tchaikovsky could read Russian, French, and German by the time he was 6 years old?
- He hated physical exercise, taking baths, and didn't care about what he wore or how he looked?
- He was obsessed with music and tapped things with his fingers if he didn't have a piano to try out the music he made up. Once, he tapped so hard that he broke a window!
During the Performance - Things to Watch For
1. Pas de Deux
A pas de deux is a dance for two people. It is an exciting partnership between dancers, physically, musically, and artistically. Usually the two lead characters of a production perform it. During a pas de deux with a man and a woman, the man will lift the woman and sweep her into the air. Look for a pas de deux with Clara and the Nutcracker and the
Sugar plum Fairy and her Cavalier!
2. Pantomime
A small but important part of the ballet tradition is the use of pantomime to express ideas, feelings and plots with gestures rather than words. Look for pantomime in the living room scene with Clara and her mother and father, and also in the opening scene following the snow scene. The characters will tell stories using gestures.
3. Corps de Ballet versus Soloists
Ballet companies call their best dancers principals or soloists. These few dancers have featured roles in the ballet and often will dance all alone. The rest of the company called the corps de ballet supports them. See if you can distinguish who is in the corps de ballet and who is a soloist. In the snow scene you will see a soloist and a corps dancing together.
Discussion
Discuss the elements of dance (body shapes, levels, patterns, tempo, rhythm, energy), music, mime, costumes, scenery, and lighting, and how they all work together to create a story onstage.
Have you ever expressed something to someone without using words?
Discuss how people frequently use gestures, facial expressions, and movement to express themselves without words (waving hello or goodbye, nodding yes and no, stamping in anger, jumping for joy); these actions are related to the mime and acting they will see on stage.
What are some different ways dancers can move and use the space of the stage?
- Energy: Movements can be smooth, sharp, fluid, or syncopated.
- Body Shapes: Dancers can make round or angular shapes and poses with their bodies.
- Levels: Dancers can move low to the ground and other times they can jump or be lifted high in the air.
- Patterns: Dancers can make patterns individually by moving in different directions around the stage (think of the way you can trace ice skaters’ movement patterns by the lines their skates leave on the ice) and they can make patterns with each other when dancing in groups (circles; diamonds; pinwheels; straight lines).
- Tempo: Dancers can move quickly, very slowly, or at a speed in-between.
- Rhythm: Dancers can move to certain patterns of sound such as a waltz (in three’s) or a march (in two’s).
Writing Activity
Bluegrass Youth Ballet
Email: info@bluegrassyouthballet.org
Website: www.bluegrassyouthballet.org
Location: 1595 Mercer Court, Lexington, KY, United States
Phone: 859-271-4472
Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/Bluegrass-Youth-Ballet-59704969597/
Twitter: @BYByouthballet