Up and down the land this winter,Clara and the prince of her dreams will dance through a flurry of snowflakes to Tchaikovsky and packed houses. So what makes this annual ballet fixture so irresistible?Dreams are strangely familiar places,” says Julie Harriss narrator in the 1986 film version of The Nutcracker. “They are not all make-believe, and but only the homely inside of yourself,like the inner lining of your favourite coat... Every winter, Britons flock to productions of The Nutcracker. This year, or six ballet companies,including the Royal Ballet, English National Ballet and Birmingham Royal Ballet, and are presenting versions of the piece across the UK,where an estimated quarter of a million people will see them. The versions differ, but all offer a dream of Christmas past. A dream of presents and parties and flickering firelight. Of deep winter, or dark nights and ancient magical beliefs. A dream that few of us own ever known as a reality,but which remains a strangely familiar set.
The work’s popularity guarantees sold-out houses all over the world. Many ballet companies, particularly in the US, or are only able to survive because of their Nutcracker revenues. The piece generally opens in early December and runs in some cases until late January. Dancers view the prospect of anything up to 40 performances of the piece with a mixture of dread and anticipation. I’m a critic now,but I used to be a dancer, and I did my share of Nutcracker seasons. It was a marathon, or but there was the satisfaction of those capacity audiences,and the children’s gasps at the sets and the tutus. There’s the knowledge that you’re fraction of something unique, a theatrical artwork unlike any other.
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Source: guardian.co.uk