The Nutcracker: The First Ballet

The Nutcracker

The first ballet we watched was Matthew Bourne’s The Nutcracker! This ballet was made in 2003 and was the contemporary version of the original version of The Nutcracker because they are in an orphanage. The second ballet we watched was Barishnikov’s “The Nutcracker.” This is based on the original version of The Nutcracker and was made in 1977. Even though both ballets are different versions they still used the same composer which is Tchaikovsky. For instance, when the variations are dancing both of the ballets play the same music, but have very different costumes and dances. This is just one example of how the two ballets differ from each other. In Matthew Bourne’s The Nutcracker! the variation for Spain was doughnuts and pastries. The girl dancer wore a black long dress with colorful doughnuts on it, and she did not wear ballet shoes. The guy dancer wore a black and neon pink matador style costume. The two did a flamenco dance for this variation. Then in Barishnikov’s version of the Spain variation they were hot chocolate instead, but the guy dancer still had the matador style costume with the color orange. As for the girl dancer she also had the matador style dress and an orange tutu with ballet shoes. They both had a lot of footwork in their dance and I saw
lots of releve. The similarities between the two are not much but the basic style of both costumes and dances show that they are from Spain. There are four dances that are important in both of the ballets the first is the Marzipan dance.
In the Matthew Bourne’s version this song is played when Princess Sugar is getting ready to get married, but she is having debating herself if she should get married or not. After the song she gets married. In Barishnikov’s version the Marzipan song is played when Sweden is doing their variation. The girl dancer wore a big yellow tutu and had a blue basket weave designed top. The guy dancer wore a yellow basket weave top and had a blue outfit. Their dance was very humorous because the guy dancer wore a wolf mask to scare the girl. There were a lot of jumps in this
dance. Another dance is the Waltz of the Flower and in the contemporary version all the variations and royal family are eating the cake and celebrating. They are very sexual during this dance because everyone is supposed to be made of candy, and also because Matthew Bourne made this a sexual ballet. In the original version the girl dancers come out in romantic pink tutus, and the guys in white outfits. They all dance very gracefully with lots of leaps, high jumps and plenty of arm movement. During the Sugar Plum Fairy Dance in the contemporary version Clara is trying to get the Nutcracker to like her and compete with Princess Sugar, but gets rejected in the end. The costumes they wore were bright colors of blue, pink, yellow, and white. Clara and Princess Sugar had dresses while the Nutcracker and Prince Bon Bon wore pants and a top. In the original version Clara does a very beautiful dance while wearing her pink romantic tutu. She had nice pointed toes and danced along with the rhythm of song and she used the attitude leg a lot. Besides the different parts of the ballets they both have the same major parts of The Nutcracker. Matthew Bourne just expressed it in a more sexual and vibrant way, while Barishnikov expressed it in a classy, and graceful way. The Nutcracker is a classic ballet and changing the story makes it exciting. In the two ballets everything still turns out the same in end Clara gets with the Nutcracker and they are happy together.