Nutcracker Ballet

The Nutcracker is a magical story of a young girl named Marie or Clara (depending on the story) at her family's Christmas party. She receives a Nutcracker from her mysterious Uncle, and it ends up coming to life in her dream. When the party ends she finds rats or mice (depending on the story) fighting the nutcracker and other magical toys. The toys, Nutcracker and Marie/Clara win against the rats/mice and Rat Queen/Mouse King. In the second act she dreams that the Nutcracker brings her to a magical Land of Sweets, where mystical creatures dance for her and the Nutcracker. In some versions of this story guests from the Christmas party reappear as magical characters in the second act. In the end she wakes up and realizes that it was just a dream.

This complicated story comes from E.T.A. Hoffman’s original tale written in 1816. The first ballet adaptation was in 1892 in St. Petersburg, Russia at the Mariinsky Theatre, by the Mariinsky Ballet. The iconic music was written by Peter Ilyitch Tchaikovsky and is now used around the world.

There are many Nutcracker adaptations around the world, performed by large professional companies to small dance schools. A few of the biggest ones are the Bolshoi Ballet, New York City Ballet, American Ballet Theater, Utah Ballet and more.

In the Twin Cities and surrounding areas there are many Nutrackers from singular dance schools and companies and cities wide nutcrackers that are open to all. One of these is Loyce Houlton’s Nutcracker Fantasy at the State Theater, and there are a couple dancers at Blake who are performing in this, including myself (Georgia Doar), and Gabriella Maggit-Sims.

There are also many other student performers in our middle school, so if you see them be sure to say, “Good luck” or talk to them about it.

Student Spotlight: Gabbriella Maggit-Sims and Georgia Doar:

Georgia Doar (Performed the role of Commedia; 3rd year in the show):

Q: How do you feel about the Nutcracker?

A: So this one (Loyce Houlton’s Nutcracker Fantasy at the State Theater) specifically is a very big production, and it's very fun to be a part of. It's also extremely stressful because there are people that will come every year because it’s a tradition in their family. So we’re held to a standard each year. So it's a lot of pressure, but it's a lot of fun because you get all of the experience of being in a professional production.

Q: What's your favorite part about being in the production?

A: Being in the theater, like: being backstage, being in the dressing rooms, being with my friends in the dressing rooms, and most of all getting to watch the professional dancers and watching what they bring to the production

Q: Is this the Nutcracker where all the costumes were damaged?

A: Yeah, this is the one where all of the sets got damaged. We were able to retrieve some of them, but it was a big deal. And basically, during two of the scenes, there's a huge screen that comes down, and it's almost like a curtain, but you can see through it and paint on it. They're very beautiful. They basically dissolved in the water, and they had to, last minute, in 48 hours, have someone come in and paint a new one.

Gabbriella Maggit-Sims (Performed the role of Flowers and Snow; 2nd year):

Q: Where is this Nutcracker?

A: It's at the State Theater and it's directed by Kaitlyn Gillian and co-directed with Lisa Holton and Pavielle Versalles and Miss Katie

Q: What was tech week like? Was it intense?

A: Well, so basically what happened to our props is that when we opened our storage unit, we found out that most of our props had been destroyed... But Guthrie Theatre and all the other theaters worked with us and they gave us things to borrow just for this year. And so tech week was definitely super stressful because the director thought that she was going to have to cancel the show because so many things were damaged. So that's why tech week was so stressful.

Q: So how many people are in the show?

A: There are around a hundred people in the show.

Q: What’s your favorite part of being in the Nutcracker?

A: I want to be a professional ballerina. Like starting dancing with the orchestra, younger and starting in the corps younger is going to help you when you want to be in a company… and also of course because it's just so so much fun and it helps you create those really fun memories with all your friends.