At this time of year ballet dancers from Sydney to San Francisco are fastening their tutus, breaking in pointe shoes and memorising byzantine cast lists that have them in roles from candy canes and flowers to harlequin dolls and soldiers. It’s Nutcracker season, and along with the magically lit trees and dancing snowflakes, this festive classic offers a chance for dancers to interpret enduring roles.
The Nutcracker was premiered in 1892, in Moscow, by the Bolshoi Ballet, as the third and final of Tchaikovsky’s beloved ballet scores, after Sleeping Beauty and Swan Lake. Since then it has become a global phenomenon: every major ballet company has a Nutcracker in its repertoire.
When the State Ballet of Georgia brings its version to Dublin in November, audiences will see a connection to the original creation of the choreographers Marius Petipa and Lev Ivanov, shaped here by the company’s artistic director, Nina Ananiashvili, a renowned former Bolshoi ballerina. “Nutcracker doesn’t need any explanation, because everybody knows first this genius music. It is really beautiful,” she says.
Many companies put their own stamp on this ballet, which can range from elaborate Victorian costumes in the first act to a hot-air-balloon carriage in the second, but no matter how the costumes and scenery might change, the music remains constant.
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“I decided to think about what I can do a little differently, and then I decided to move the story to Georgia,” Ananiashvili, who in 2024 brought her production of Swan Lake to Dublin, says. “Everything happens in the Tbilisi old town during the beginning of the 20th century, when Tbilisi was a really European city. We had a lot of foreigners like we do now. Doctors, architects, lots of people were living in Georgia. It was really international, Tbilisi especially. I decided to move everything there, where everything happens in a doctor’s house.”
The original Nutcracker, based on a story by ETA Hoffmann, features guests arriving at a bustling party where a young girl, Clara, celebrates Christmas with friends and family. Amid all the merriment she tussles with her brother over a Nutcracker doll given to her by her godfather, the extraordinary Uncle Drosselmeier.
During their horseplay her beloved Nutcracker breaks. As the party winds down and the clock strikes midnight, a battle sparks between the Nutcracker and the Mouse King, setting the stage for the fantastical events to come. All the while Clara bravely defends her cherished Nutcracker, leading her on a journey through the land of snow to the magical Kingdom of Sweets.
The ballet’s second act includes a delightful line-up of dances, featuring waltzing flowers, elegant mirlitons and the enchanting Sugar Plum Fairy, among many others.
Although it received mixed reviews at its 1892 opening, The Nutcracker’s music and story have become so entrenched in popular culture that the ballet has become synonymous with the festive season. Tchaikovsky died only a year after composing its score, so he never saw it reach such popularity.
Ananiashvili choreographed this version with her former Bolshoi Ballet partner Alexei Fadeyechev. It follows a well-known rendition created in 1966 by the Russian ballet master Yuri Grigorovich, which the State Ballet of Georgia presented until unveiling this new version, four years ago.
Audiences can expect a familiar line-up in the Kingdom of Sweets, from the exotic Arabian dance to the lighthearted Chinese tea dance. It also includes a showstopping traditional Georgian rendition of what is usually the Russian Trepak dance, full of leaps and turns.
“We keep everything that is really well known,” Ananiashvili says, making minor adjustments in the score, “but we don’t destroy any musicality.”
Most productions follow the ballet’s original narrative, adding hallmarks of their own. The version that George Balanchine created for New York City Ballet, in 1954, remains one of the best-known adaptations. With a cast of 90 dancers and 125 children dancing in more than 50 performances a year, this large-scale show encapsulates Christmas warmth and magic, as well as possibility for aspiring dancers.
Dance historians credit this production with cementing The Nutcracker as a holiday tradition. A 2012 Disney+ docuseries, On Pointe, chronicles what happens behind the scenes, following young dancers through the audition process for their first Nutcracker performances, then segueing to young apprentices and their gruelling work during the six-week season.
The writer Jennifer Fisher explains in her book Nutcracker Nation how the ballet’s arrival in North America, in the mid-20th century, coincided with the societal focus there on family values and overall optimism, an ideal environment for producing a ballet largely seen through children’s eyes.
Ballets Russes, Serge Diaghilev’s travelling company, previously had introduced to the United States a shortened version of the ballet called the Nutcracker Suite, with pared-down pantomiming. After its triumph, Balanchine then choreographed his own show permanently based in New York.
That ballet’s outstanding reception with audiences, combined with its box-office profits, prompted companies across the United States to follow suit. Many regional ballet companies then created their own, enthusiastically received Nutcrackers, which are still being performed. This phenomenon has been repeated around the world.
“I remember when I was kid and I first saw The Nutcracker and what that meant for me,” says Nino Samadashvili, a leading soloist with the State Ballet of Georgia who performs the Sugar Plum Fairy in Dublin. “We had the Grigorovich version when I was maybe five or six years old. And when this tree grew, getting bigger and bigger, I will never forget that moment.
“That’s why I enjoy The Nutcracker very much, because I know how much the kids enjoy it. Every time I perform I’m trying to give them something very bright, very light and very shining, especially with the Sugar Plum Fairy. That music is absolutely fantastic.”
Samadashvili follows in the footsteps of numerous dancers who have risen through The Nutcracker’s ranks. Many launch their careers as children in the party scene or underneath Mother Ginger’s enormous skirt. With perseverance they graduate to perform as soldiers or flowers, always with an eye towards the pinnacle roles, the Sugar Plum Fairy and her prince.
Many professional dancers say attending The Nutcracker was their reason for starting ballet lessons and that watching The Nutcracker from the wings once they began performing inspired them to work towards more coveted roles.
Despite the integral role of children in this ballet, none will appear in the State Ballet of Georgia’s version coming to Dublin. Instead the younger company members will play the children’s parts, a common practice with companies that go on the road.
One of the finest examples of professional dancers performing children’s roles includes American Ballet Theatre’s 1976 production of Nutcracker, featuring Mikhail Baryshnikov as the Nutcracker and Gelsey Kirkland as Clara. That movie is renowned for the pair’s exquisite second-act pas de deux to some of the most heartfelt music Tchaikovsky composed.
“This adagio music, when it’s starting, I have goosebumps,” says Samadashvili. “And that’s what audiences will remember. For them it will be something special. I think every ballet is very special, but Nutcracker is special because it has some innocent, magical things inside.”
Ananiashvili strongly believes in classical ballet’s longevity, especially with works such as The Nutcracker.
“Sometimes I hear people say, ‘Oh, we don’t know ballet because ballet is really so elite.’ No, that’s wrong,” she says. “I want to say to everyone, ballet is the most fantastic art, because you don’t need to know anything. You don’t need a translation. We are dancing without words. We’re dancing with our hearts, with our body, and with our feelings.
“And people who come for the first time and see a beautiful production, I’m sure they will come back. So don’t be worried about going the first time or taking your kids the first time. This is what I say to parents: it’s really important to bring children, to show ballet is this beautiful art. Visually, physically and musically, it’s a really fantastic ballet, The Nutcracker.”
The State Ballet of Georgia performs The Nutcracker at Bord Gáis Energy Theatre, Dublin, from Monday, November 10th, until Saturday, November 15th
