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Nutcracker Nation: How an Old World Ballet Became a Christmas Tradition in the New World
A lively discussion of North America’s favorite ballet—its history, productions, and significance
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, 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 Hawaiians added hula, Canadians added hockey, Mark Morris set it in the swinging sixties, and Donald Byrd placed it in Harlem. 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.
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, 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 Hawaiians added hula, Canadians added hockey, Mark Morris set it in the swinging sixties, and Donald Byrd placed it in Harlem. 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.
253 pages, Paperback
First published September 10, 2003
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259 people want to read
About the author
Jennifer Fisher
26 books5 followersA former dancer, actor and journalist, Jennifer Fisher, Ph.D. is a professor of dance studies at the University of California, Irvine.
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Displaying 1 - 19 of 19 reviews
January 9, 2022
Click here to hear my thoughts on this book over on my Booktube channel, abookolive.
January 1, 2024
3.75⭐️
December 16, 2022
Growing up as a ballet student, The Nutcracker was part of the architecture of my year, along with the spring recital and summer intensives. My crowning moments onstage came when I was a soldier who fired the cannon one year, and the next, the mouse shot (but only stunned!) by the cannon. Fisher here explores The Nutcracker ethnographically, which was quite enjoyable, as I have gone through all the stages of starry-eyed child audience, young performer, and adult balletomane.
Fisher gives the history of The Nutcracker, a history of ballet in North America, and relates her ethnographic/dance-critical explorations of Nutcrackers around the world. She effectively argues, "The Nutcracker is the ballet immigrant who made it big on a lavish scale," (6) largely through George Balanchine's iconic production, which elevated the original production beyond its wildest, sweets-laced dreams. The Nutcracker has taken off in North America more than anywhere else. England has its pantomimes for children that perhaps take away from the seasonal ballet; Russia never fully embraced it; France and Italy don't share all of the cultural images that are central to the story, though China has tried it. She shares all kinds of fun trivia about productions, including that Maria Tallchief originated Balanchine's Sugar Plum Fairy, and that a Harlem Nutcracker built an emotionally compelling performance around a grandmother Claire and a dream-trip to the Harlem Renaissance with a Sugar Rum Cherry at Club Sweets.
Nutcracker Nation was published too early for Fisher to share her take on the Joffrey Ballet's version, but it is my personal favorite. They set the story in 1892--the year of the original Russian production--but in Chicago among immigrant communities building the World Columbian Exposition of 1893. The international dances make so much more sense after seeing Marie frolic at a party with immigrant friends the night before. (And their Chinese dance is, by far, the least cringey I've seen.) And there's just something special about seeing this international symbol iconized in one's hometown.
A fun read for any Nutcracker fan, but not the most illuminating or inspiring ballet take I've encountered.
Fisher gives the history of The Nutcracker, a history of ballet in North America, and relates her ethnographic/dance-critical explorations of Nutcrackers around the world. She effectively argues, "The Nutcracker is the ballet immigrant who made it big on a lavish scale," (6) largely through George Balanchine's iconic production, which elevated the original production beyond its wildest, sweets-laced dreams. The Nutcracker has taken off in North America more than anywhere else. England has its pantomimes for children that perhaps take away from the seasonal ballet; Russia never fully embraced it; France and Italy don't share all of the cultural images that are central to the story, though China has tried it. She shares all kinds of fun trivia about productions, including that Maria Tallchief originated Balanchine's Sugar Plum Fairy, and that a Harlem Nutcracker built an emotionally compelling performance around a grandmother Claire and a dream-trip to the Harlem Renaissance with a Sugar Rum Cherry at Club Sweets.
Nutcracker Nation was published too early for Fisher to share her take on the Joffrey Ballet's version, but it is my personal favorite. They set the story in 1892--the year of the original Russian production--but in Chicago among immigrant communities building the World Columbian Exposition of 1893. The international dances make so much more sense after seeing Marie frolic at a party with immigrant friends the night before. (And their Chinese dance is, by far, the least cringey I've seen.) And there's just something special about seeing this international symbol iconized in one's hometown.
A fun read for any Nutcracker fan, but not the most illuminating or inspiring ballet take I've encountered.
Read
December 19, 2020Because I love The Nutcracker, I enjoyed this little book about its various lives in North America. The author connects the rise of its popularity in mid-century 1900’s to the simultaneous release of Fantasia and a national tv broadcast of the NYC performance. I found myself in a rabbit hole of YouTube videos trying to find these specific performances and am intrigued by urban Nutcrackers, which Playhouse Square in Cleveland is streaming this year. I already will be watching the Pittsburgh Ballet Company’s fireside performance so it could be a fun way to compare how the tradition of the Nutcracker continues to evolve.
Anyway back to the book: I’m not sure you’ll enjoy it if you don’t have a deep love for it already. I’ve spent a life loving The Nutcracker - my parents have played the Nutcracker for years and I have spent much of my life attending performances and playing the suite as I got older.
There is not a whole lot about Russia or its beginning there, which I find a detriment to the book. Having been to a ballet at the Mariinsky Theatre in St. Petersburg I wanted to hear more about its beginning before jumping to modern day. Perhaps this isn’t the book for that.
Lastly, The Nutcracker is nothing without the music and yet there is precious little about it. As a musician, it’s always interesting how often the music is left out of books and accolades. A book about the Nutcracker ballet deserves more time spent on the music. Perhaps too much to ask since it was written by a ballerina, but the fact remains that without Tchaikovsky there is no Nutcracker ballet.
Anyway back to the book: I’m not sure you’ll enjoy it if you don’t have a deep love for it already. I’ve spent a life loving The Nutcracker - my parents have played the Nutcracker for years and I have spent much of my life attending performances and playing the suite as I got older.
There is not a whole lot about Russia or its beginning there, which I find a detriment to the book. Having been to a ballet at the Mariinsky Theatre in St. Petersburg I wanted to hear more about its beginning before jumping to modern day. Perhaps this isn’t the book for that.
Lastly, The Nutcracker is nothing without the music and yet there is precious little about it. As a musician, it’s always interesting how often the music is left out of books and accolades. A book about the Nutcracker ballet deserves more time spent on the music. Perhaps too much to ask since it was written by a ballerina, but the fact remains that without Tchaikovsky there is no Nutcracker ballet.
December 24, 2020
it is Christmas season now. A wonderful time of the year with beautiful decorations, cookies, Santa and Nutcracker ballet. Nutcracker is now a big part of Christmas in North America, performed in almost every city by professional ballet groups as well as by amateurs. It is a ballet performance that many people like me who don't know much about ballet have seen. So how did this happen that this German story developed into Russian ballet and then was taken over by America as part of their Christmas culture?
This is what this book is about. It tells us the history of Nutcracker starting from its very beginning in Russia with Tchaikovsky working on the music and how it went to to America and evolved to having qualities that American people of that time appreciated as well how the times and things like Fantasia the Disney movie or Nutcracker in the White House brought people's interest to ballet.
Besides that Jennifer Fisher talks about the variety of Nutcracker. She mentions many productions and their uniqueness. This also involves the ones that were adapted with African American culture or amateur events with school kids participating. We read about some analysis of characters, and the opinions of viewers as well as dancers.
The book really has a lot in it and is an interesting thing to read this time of the year. I finished it on time because tomorrow is the virtual Nutcracker performance that I will watch, will definitely to it. add a lot
This is what this book is about. It tells us the history of Nutcracker starting from its very beginning in Russia with Tchaikovsky working on the music and how it went to to America and evolved to having qualities that American people of that time appreciated as well how the times and things like Fantasia the Disney movie or Nutcracker in the White House brought people's interest to ballet.
Besides that Jennifer Fisher talks about the variety of Nutcracker. She mentions many productions and their uniqueness. This also involves the ones that were adapted with African American culture or amateur events with school kids participating. We read about some analysis of characters, and the opinions of viewers as well as dancers.
The book really has a lot in it and is an interesting thing to read this time of the year. I finished it on time because tomorrow is the virtual Nutcracker performance that I will watch, will definitely to it. add a lot
Read
June 16, 2023I've never been a Nutcracker person, my only direct experience with it was attending one amateur production of it somewhere around 13 or 14. And I've read the E.T.A. Hoffman book, which is only tangentially related to the ballet, if we're being honest. Ultimately there wasn't as much history in here as I was hoping for. What historical information about the ballet that was included seemed to be used as reflections for where it is now, not really a tracing of the ballet from history to current. The book is more of a psychological and sociological examination of The Nutcracker, from an individual who isn't really trained in either area. But honestly that doesn't make it any less endearing. It's definitely an enthusiastic and endearing love letter to ballet, and mostly The Nutcracker's place in ballet in the US lexicon, especially because, for a lot of people, they are in some ways inextricably linked.
So I'm kind of torn about this book, I guess. It wasn't the historical deep dive that I was hoping for, but it's not unenjoyable for what it is either. Solidly in the middle, I suppose.
So I'm kind of torn about this book, I guess. It wasn't the historical deep dive that I was hoping for, but it's not unenjoyable for what it is either. Solidly in the middle, I suppose.
June 7, 2024
“How strong you had to be to stand on that little pointe, and how glorious it was” 💖🩰💪
December 16, 2023
Interesting and informative. I especially enjoyed learning more about the history of the Nutcracker’s premiere in Marinsky and seeing pictures of the very first Clara, Fritz, Sugar Plum, and Snowflakes as well as learning how Disney’s Nutcracker section of Fantasia facilitated the ballet’s introduction to the wider public. I think anyone who’s grown up involved in Nutcracker performances would appreciate this book.
August 10, 2018
2nd reading to parse and paraphrase. A lot of information packed in 194 pages.
April 25, 2016
p.28 – On Christmas night in both 1957 and 1958, Americans could see what was going on at Clara’s house while relaxing in their own living rooms when CBS television presented the New York City Ballet in George Balanchine’s Nutcracker. New Yorkers has already taken the ballet to heart, but these first nationally televised versions were the most intimate encounters to date between the ballet and a wider public.
p.29 – If Fantasia had emphasized The Nutcracker’s accessibility, fun-loving aspect, the Christmas night television broadcasts helped establish its portability and ability to fit in on the home front.
p.31 – The 1993 big-screen version of Balanchine’s production is more handsome than the early televised versions and features excellent performances, but because it stays so faithful to the stage, the immediacy of both film and live performance are lost.
p.37 – It’s hard to overestimate the impact of Balanchine’s seal of approval on The Nutcracker. Although he wasn’t known to all Americans, his work had a certain amount of national recognition.
p.38-39 – Although San Francisco can claim the first full-length American Nutcracker, the New York City Ballet’s version undoubtedly had the most influence, both because of its proximity to television network headquarters, where Christmas programming was chosen, and because of its enormous appeal in an influential dance capital. Choreographers as well as dance lovers made pilgrimages to New York to see what the master had done, and dancers who left New York carried aspects of Balanchine’s production to various parts of the continent. In the 1950s and 1960s, before The Nutcracker became almost exclusively a Christmastime ballet, City ballet did it during their summer season in Saratoga and on trips to Los Angeles and Chicago, each time incorporating a community of local ballet students in the cast.
p.41 – When I watch a good Nutcracker in times of stress, I have an even deeper appreciation for the small oasis of beauty, aspiration, and togetherness that it can momentarily provide. The first dance performance I attended after the attacks of September 11 was a non-Nutcracker Balanchine program, and I thought of what a welcome, stabilizing experience his choreography could be. It reminded me of his core classical values, and how, back in 1954, when he made his Nutcracker, he combined the Old World creatively with shifts in the New World as they came at him.
p.43 – in the 1950s and 60s, many children of postwar prosperity were sent off to ballet classes (at least the girls were) to learn to be graceful, and what could be more alluring than their debut in a ballet that required children? It was just a matter of time before the character traits of The Nutcracker helped it progress from the status of an immigrant to that of a new citizen.
p.59 – Parents were more likely than dancers themselves to note the physical changes they saw, commenting on the way ballet helped previously awkward or shy children develop spatial awareness, self-confidence, poise, grace, and dignity.
p.29 – If Fantasia had emphasized The Nutcracker’s accessibility, fun-loving aspect, the Christmas night television broadcasts helped establish its portability and ability to fit in on the home front.
p.31 – The 1993 big-screen version of Balanchine’s production is more handsome than the early televised versions and features excellent performances, but because it stays so faithful to the stage, the immediacy of both film and live performance are lost.
p.37 – It’s hard to overestimate the impact of Balanchine’s seal of approval on The Nutcracker. Although he wasn’t known to all Americans, his work had a certain amount of national recognition.
p.38-39 – Although San Francisco can claim the first full-length American Nutcracker, the New York City Ballet’s version undoubtedly had the most influence, both because of its proximity to television network headquarters, where Christmas programming was chosen, and because of its enormous appeal in an influential dance capital. Choreographers as well as dance lovers made pilgrimages to New York to see what the master had done, and dancers who left New York carried aspects of Balanchine’s production to various parts of the continent. In the 1950s and 1960s, before The Nutcracker became almost exclusively a Christmastime ballet, City ballet did it during their summer season in Saratoga and on trips to Los Angeles and Chicago, each time incorporating a community of local ballet students in the cast.
p.41 – When I watch a good Nutcracker in times of stress, I have an even deeper appreciation for the small oasis of beauty, aspiration, and togetherness that it can momentarily provide. The first dance performance I attended after the attacks of September 11 was a non-Nutcracker Balanchine program, and I thought of what a welcome, stabilizing experience his choreography could be. It reminded me of his core classical values, and how, back in 1954, when he made his Nutcracker, he combined the Old World creatively with shifts in the New World as they came at him.
p.43 – in the 1950s and 60s, many children of postwar prosperity were sent off to ballet classes (at least the girls were) to learn to be graceful, and what could be more alluring than their debut in a ballet that required children? It was just a matter of time before the character traits of The Nutcracker helped it progress from the status of an immigrant to that of a new citizen.
p.59 – Parents were more likely than dancers themselves to note the physical changes they saw, commenting on the way ballet helped previously awkward or shy children develop spatial awareness, self-confidence, poise, grace, and dignity.
December 13, 2015
Like every good Nutcracker fan, the first thing I did was check the index to see if *my* favorite (Pacific Northwest Ballet) was mentioned :) (If you're wondering, they are, but only in one endnote. Harumph!)
Aside from only mentioning PNB's Nutcracker once, this is a wonderful book about the ballet, starting with its history, and likening it to an immigrant that came from Russia to the U.S. to find a new life. Fisher also explores the history of ballet in general; Tchaikovsky's music for The Nutcracker; public perception of ballet, other forms of dance, and The Nutcracker; dancers' perceptions of The Nutcracker; and variations in different companies' Nutcracker programs.
Aside from only mentioning PNB's Nutcracker once, this is a wonderful book about the ballet, starting with its history, and likening it to an immigrant that came from Russia to the U.S. to find a new life. Fisher also explores the history of ballet in general; Tchaikovsky's music for The Nutcracker; public perception of ballet, other forms of dance, and The Nutcracker; dancers' perceptions of The Nutcracker; and variations in different companies' Nutcracker programs.
January 11, 2013
A quick, accessible, and easy-to-read overview not only of how the Tchaikovsky-scored ballet managed to implement itself as a holiday institution in (primarily) America, but how it has been taken up by extremely different types and communities of people, for reasons that are both inexplicable and mysterious and rather banal (it conjures up feelings of nostalgia, etc). Fisher's history also becomes inevitably intertwined with how the Christmas season has developed in the Western world over the last century or so. More of a cultural examination than a technical or academic study, I primarily read this in spare moments between Christmas gatherings and activities, and it proved extremely well suited to that purpose.
October 26, 2019
This is a book that I have been waiting over two years to read, and I'm not sure if it fell a year bit short because of that. I am one of those balletomanes that loves the Nutcracker, so I do appreciate the subject matter immensely.
In some ways this is clearly a PhD thesis. The explanation at some points becomes tedious. I understand that not everyone who reads this will know ballet, but for something who has danced for decades, it can be much.
She touches on the regional variations of the Nutcracker, but I would have appreciated her digging deeper.
In some ways this is clearly a PhD thesis. The explanation at some points becomes tedious. I understand that not everyone who reads this will know ballet, but for something who has danced for decades, it can be much.
She touches on the regional variations of the Nutcracker, but I would have appreciated her digging deeper.
December 15, 2013
If you're someone whose Christmas isn't complete without "The Nutcracker" in some fashion, whether it is listening to the music, attending a live production, or watching one of the many recorded versions on DVD, youtube, or VHS, this book makes for a good read. I danced in various "Nutcracker" productions for 12 years and there was new information that I didn't know about, like the complete history of how America came to embrace the ballet. It was also fun to read about the community that rallies around their annual "Nutcracker" each year.
January 15, 2011
Style is less organized than I'd like, but worth the read none the less.I was tempted to give this a 3 for that, but in content it's a 4. Lots of interesting information and an entertaining writing style.Lots of good tidbits about performance, and I especially liked the chapter on ballet fiction--especially the kudos to Noel Streatfield!
February 7, 2016
I really enjoyed learning about the history of the Nutcracker, and I especially liked how Fisher told the story through personification of the ballet (as defector, immigrant, citizen, White House resident, etc.). I had kind of taken for granted the tradition of the Nutcracker, so my favorite analysis explored the Nutcracker as an annual, secular ritual.
January 21, 2008
I was using it for research but wound up quickly reading the whole thing. It is a nice history of/testament to the peculiar presence of a Russian ballet in American "holiday" tradition. Very entertaining.
October 21, 2010
Enjoyable and informative for anyone with a love of art and history and how those forces create culture and traditions. If you've ever been a part of a community Nutcracker it's fun to get a view of how
other places celebrate this artistic ritual.
other places celebrate this artistic ritual.
December 14, 2015
Loved the first chapter, the rest were a bit rambling. Interesting, not well-developed ideas. Seems to be reaching for topics to write about. Definitely an interesting idea, and a very special ballet in its history and contemporary performance.
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