Sorry, 'The Nutcracker' Is Racist
By Lauren Bjella
Opinion Editor December 19, 2017 It’s hard to imagine now, but when The Nutcracker premiered at St. Petersburg’s Mariinsky Theater in 1892, it was a dud: Critics complained that the story was boring, the choreography unworthy of Tchaikovsky’s score, the presence of children onstage “unbearable.”
But when George Balanchine re-choreographed it for the New York City Ballet (NYCB) in the mid-twentieth century, in a flashy production at Lincoln Center—complete with a massive Christmas tree that grew onstage, an indoor snowstorm, and elaborate costumes by famed designer Barbara Karinska—audiences gave it a second chance. Now, The Nutcracker is one of the most popular ballets in the world; the story is as much a part of the Christmas canon as Rudolph or Frosty, and many dancers credit The Nutcracker with inspiring their own careers. Nearly every regional company in this country has its own version, many of them based on Balanchine. Companies rely on The Nutcracker to sustain them for the rest of the year; at NYCB, Nutcracker generates about 40 percent of the annual revenue. It also traffics in blatant and offensive stereotypes. Dressed in harem pants and a straw hat, eyes painted to look slanted, the white man playing “Chinese Tea” jumps out of a box and bows; two white women, wearing chopsticks in their black wigs, dance with their index fingers pointed in the air. In a dance conceived as “something for the fathers,” a woman portraying “Arabian coffee” slinks around the stage in a belly shirt, bells attached to her ankles. (Choreographers in different genres continue to reinterpret it; in Austin McCormick’s Nutcracker Rouge, “Arabian” is a pole dance.) It’s a beloved Christmas tradition—but parts of The Nutcracker haven’t aged well. Although many people love the Nutcracker, many are offended and don’t give their money to this production due to its use of cultural appropriation, putting a dent in the holiday spirit. |
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