Abstract
This article draws attention to elements of medievalism in The Nutcracker ballet, which premiered in St. Petersburg in 1892. I argue that medieval tropes of sacred play are embedded within this postmedieval work of art. Interpreting medieval toy culture alongside Western classical dance, this article articulates how medieval religiosity informs aesthetic production and perception today. In conclusion, I touch upon a more disturbing side of ballet medievalism, which contributes to the otherization and racialisation of non-Christian dancers. In sum, this article suggests that premodern cultures can lend layers of significance to artistic creations of the modern era.
Résumé
Cet article attire l’attention sur des éléments du médiévalisme dans le ballet Casse-Noisette, qui a été créé à Saint-Pétersbourg en 1892. Je soutiens que les tropes médiévaux du jeu sacré sont intégrés dans cette œuvre d’art postmédiévale. Interprétant la culture médiévale du jouet aux côtés de la danse classique occidentale, cet article explique comment la religiosité médiévale informe la production et la perception esthétiques aujourd’hui. En conclusion, j’aborde un aspect plus troublant du médiévalisme du ballet, qui contribue à l’altérisation et à la racialisation des danseurs non chrétiens. En somme, cet article suggère que les cultures prémodernes peuvent donner des couches de signification aux créations artistiques de l’époque moderne.
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Notes
For example, in 1816 Hoffmann composed an opera entitled Undine, which is a love story between a mermaid and a medieval knight, see Richardson (2020, 158).
To be clear, Fisher stresses that the modernization and Americanization of The Nutcracker occurred over decades of adaptation, modification, and negotiation (2003).
The original St. Petersburg production included a final ‘Apotheosis’ featuring ‘a large beehive with flying bees, closely guarding their riches’ (Wiley 1985, 337). For Damien Mahiet, the bees and beehive were a nod to the czarist regime, as they evoked themes of hierarchy, order, productivity, and kingdoms (2016a, 157).
Hoffmann’s original text begins the story in the Middle Ages with fantastic characters, whereas later chapters follow Marie/Clara in a more contemporary setting. In most ballet adaptations, the narrative action begins with Clara and her family.
Dance historian Jennifer Homans explains that the Russian émigré choreographer George Balanchine wanted to evoke not just fun, but also the mystery pertaining to Russian Christmas in his Nutcracker production. Along these lines, Balanchine preferred Hoffmann’s more serious text to the saccharine imitation by Dumas (Homans 2022, 344–45).
See also Katz (2011, 84).
Incidentally, in Hoffmann’s original text, Marie/Clara is seven years old when she receives the Nutcracker doll, and in medieval Europe, infantia (the first ‘age of man’) typically lasted seven years.
Interestingly, the ballet movement known as a pirouette, or a turn on one leg, supposedly comes from pirouelle, a Burgundian word for a child’s whirligig or spinning top (Greskovic 1998, 521).
This is an 1818 reconstruction of the original twelfth-century manuscript. For manuscript images that depict children observing puppet shows, see Le Roman d’Alexandre (Oxford, Bodleian Library, MS. Bodley 264, fols. 54v and 76r).
‘Pour dieu quon garde ma poupee’ (Harrison 1994, 106).
A not-so-serious student training to be a merchant composed these lines in a fifteenth-century school notebook from Winchester.
Elina Gertsman demonstrates how images of the Christ Child were not always child-friendly. For example, the Child of Sorrows may hold the cross or even a whip, prefiguring Christ’s Passion and thereby conflating infant vulnerability with adult sacrifice (2012, 66).
In certain versions of The Nutcracker ballet, Drosselmeier gives Clara a miniature bed for her Nutcracker doll (Greskovic 1998, 259).
However, Fisher does make a strong case for the spirituality and rituality of The Nutcracker in contemporary times (2003, esp. 171–94).
Musicologist Roland Wiley compares musical elements from the ‘Transformation Scene’ to the end of act I of The Sleeping Beauty, an 1899 ballet also composed by Tchaikovsky (1985, 225–26).
Mahiet explains how Tchaikovsky used different musical keys for the Mouse/Rat King’s death and the Nutcracker’s transformation. He also notes that the ballet’s mice and rats may be related to nineteenth-century Russian pogroms against Jews, a trope later appropriated by the Nazis (2016, 140–41, 144).
Homans calls the courtship between Marie and Drosselmeier’s nephew ‘a sexual awakening’ (2022, 345). However, I find the Balanchine version to which she refers rather infantilizing.
Years later, Kirkland revealed that this idealized portrayal was a façade, as she was suffering from a serious cocaine addiction during this period of her career (Hill-Roger 2018).
Here, Homans writes specifically about Balanchine’s Don Quixote (1965), though her analysis of the chivalric texture of ballet can be applied to many other ballets and choreographers.
It is noteworthy that both the Rose and The Nutcracker emphasize youth. For instance, one of the courtly dancers from Guillaume’s Rose is Joenesce, or Lady Youth. Like act I of The Nutcracker ballet, dance in the Middle Ages privileged the youthful (Schultz 1995, 51–52).
The Russian variation (‘Trepak’) in act II may also have imperial overtones. Mahiet suggests this dance is associated with the Cossacks and tsarist military command (2016, 148). However, others claim that this divertissement is based on Ukrainian folk dance that Russians appropriated without acknowledgment (Kaufman 2022).
Contradicting Anderson, I have uncovered ten archival photographs of a female soloist, Gloria Govrin, performing Balanchine’s ‘Coffee’ that were taken by Martha Swope in 1965. These photographs are part of the Billy Rose Theatre Division collection at the New York Public Library.
For an analysis of harmful terms wielded against Muslims in the Middle Ages, see Rajabzadeh (2019).
It is important to note that (Pseudo) Mandeville’s text is highly fictitious and elaborates upon earlier travel accounts. Moreover, Kublai Khan died in 1294, whereas scholars place Mandeville’s text between 1360 and 1370.
I thank Lev Kapitaikin for sharing with me his unpublished work on medieval Islamic dance.
However, dancers of colour have been cast as Clara elsewhere, such as Donald Byrd’s 1996 production entitled The Harlem Nutcracker. Since 2009, award-winning dancer and choreographer Debbie Allen has directed The Hot Chocolate Nutcracker, which features a racially diverse cast and a wide range of ethnic dance forms (Bokelberg 2020).
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I wish to thank the anonymous peer reviewers and Mary Caldwell for their generous feedback on earlier versions of this article. I also want to acknowledge the fantastic editorial team at postmedieval for their expertise, encouragement, and support: Beatrice Bottomley, Shazia Jagot, Julie Orlemanski, Francesca Petrizzo, and Sara Ritchey.
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Dickason, K. Toying with dance: A medievalist interprets The Nutcracker ballet. Postmedieval 14, 457–485 (2023). https://doi.org/10.1057/s41280-023-00269-z
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DOI: https://doi.org/10.1057/s41280-023-00269-z