Pre- and Post-Activities

George Balanchine’s The Nutcracker™ Choreography by George Balanchine © The George Balanchine Trust Photo © Paul Kolnik

• Read and discuss the story and other online materials about George Balanchine’s The Nutcracker™.
• Listen to excerpts from the Tschaikovsky score and notice the ways the music changes with each different scene in the story.
• Discuss or write about the topics below.

Pre-Performance Discussion Topics:
About Ballet, the Theater, The Nutcracker Story, and The Nutcracker Music
(These questions are open-ended; italics indicate possible responses and ideas for teachers and parents to use in guiding discussions.)

About Ballet:

• What kinds of dancing have you done before? Have you ever made up a dance? When do you dance and why? Do you ever dance in a group?

• What is ballet? What makes it different from other kinds of dancing?

• Why do you think dancers, both men and women, wear tights as part of their costumes? What activities do you do that require tights or leggings?

• How do you think a story can be told onstage in a ballet without using any words?
  Discuss the elements of dance, music, mime, costumes, scenery, and lighting, and how they all work together to create a story onstage.

• Have you ever expressed something to someone else without using words?
  Discuss how people frequently use gestures, facial expressions, and movements to express themselves without words (nodding yes and no, stamping in anger, jumping for joy); these actions are related to the mime and acting they will see on stage.

• When does everyday movement become dance?
  Some ideas include: when music is added, when movement expresses moods or feelings, when it is stylized or arranged in sequence for performance, or when it communicates a story or an idea.

• What are some different ways dancers can move and use the space of the stage?
  
  • Movements can be smooth, sharp, fluid, or syncopated.
  • Dancers can make round or angular shapes and poses with their bodies.
  • Dancers can move very quickly, very slowly, and at different speeds in between.
  • Dancers can use different levels of space - sometimes they are down on the ground and other times they jump or are lifted high in the air.
  • Dancers can make patterns individually by moving in different directions around the stage (think of the way you can trace ice skaters’ movement patterns by the lines their skates leave on the ice) and they can make patterns with each other when dancing in groups (circles; pinwheels; straight lines).

• Where does a ballet come from? Who is involved in creating a ballet?
  Discuss the roles of the choreographer, composer, and designers who develop the concept and then create the dance, music, and designs for scenery, lighting, and costumes. Then discuss the roles of the people who make the ballet happen: the dancers who execute the choreography; the musicians and conductors who perform the music; the carpenters, electricians, and stagehands who build and set up the scenery and lighting; and the seamstresses and wardrobe staff who sew and maintain the costumes.

About the Theater:

• How is a theater used for live performances similar to and different from a movie theater? A sports stadium?
  Discuss whether each venue has seating all the way around the performance space or just on one side; whether there’s a front curtain; whether there’s a backstage or behind-the-scenes area; whether there’s an orchestra pit; and what the seats are like.

• How do you think people act at a ballet as opposed to a movie or a sports game?
  Discuss how audience members express themselves at each even; whether or not it’s appropriate to yell and cheer, applaud, move around, talk; whether you can eat while watching; and what you would wear.

About George Balanchine’s The Nutcracker™:

• What is a Nutcracker? Why do you think it was considered a special gift?
  A long time ago, people couldn’t buy nuts that had already been taken out of their shells - they had to crack the shells themselves in order to eat the nuts. Nuts were a special treat to have at a party. It was exciting for Marie to get a fancy nutcracker to use at the party that looked like a soldier doll.

• Discuss the different nationalities represented by the sweets in Act II. Can you find the different countries that are represented on a map? (Hot Chocolate from Spain, Coffee from Arabia, Tea from China, Candy Canes from Russia, Marzipan from Germany)
  When the ballet was created, these foreign delicacies were very special and rare. People did not travel the world the way they do now, and foreign products were much harder to get. That is why these foods were considered special enough to be part of Marie’s fantasy world.

• Even though the story of The Nutcracker takes place long ago, many of its themes and events are universal and relate to experiences you have probably had:
  

  The party in Act I:
  
  

  • What kinds of parties do you have and what do you do at them?
    
  • What occasions do you celebrate with parties?
    
  • Who comes to your parties and why do you invite them?
    
  • Do you ever dance at parties? What kind of dancing do you do?

  
  
  The family interactions at the party and Marie’s conflict with her brother, Fritz:
  
  

  • Do you have disagreements with your brothers and sisters or other family members?
    
  • What do you argue about?
    
  • How do you resolve these conflicts?

  
  
  Marie’s special gift:
  
  

  • What special gifts have you received and what made them special?
    
  • Have you given a special gift? What was it and to whom did you give it?
    
  • What is the most special gift one can give or receive?

  
  
  Marie’s journey to a fantasy land:
  
  

  • Have you ever been away on a trip? How did you travel?
    
  • Where did you go? Was that place similar or different to where you live?
    
  • If you went to a “Land of Sweets,” what foods would you like to find there?
    
  • Where would you go if you could choose any fantasy or real place to visit?
    

About the Music:

• Play various excerpts from the music for George Balanchine’s The Nutcracker™. For each selection, discuss:
  
  • What is the mood of the music?
  • What types of movements do you think the dancers will be doing to this music? (fast, slow, smooth, sharp)
  • What type of costumes do you think would go with this music (color, style)?
  • What kind of scenery would you imagine?
  • Does this sound like dancing music to you?
  • What instruments do you hear in the music?

Suggested Post-performance Activities:

• Write a review of what you saw. (The questions below could be used to guide a writing exercise.)

• Choose a short scene from the ballet to recreate with your own choreography. Select your character and think of words to describe that character’s movement. Think about and practice ways to express your character with any kind of movements you can do. Listen to the music for your character’s dance and see how it makes you feel like moving. (For example, you could be a snowflake fluttering, spinning, floating, and sparkling in the air. You could jump, turn, wave your arms, wiggle your fingers, skip, run, and bend your body.) Share your dance with others! You may want to work with friends to create a scene with several people in it.

• Get a book about basic ballet movements and try learning some of the positions. Look at the pictures and see if you recognize any positions or movements you saw in the performance.

• Draw or paint a picture of your favorite section of the ballet.

• Imagine you are a designer: draw or paint your own costumes and scenery for any section of the ballet you choose.

• Send any writing or artwork you create in response to George Balanchine’s The Nutcracker™ (or any other ballet you have seen) to us for our online gallery. Selected entries will be presented in our rotating display. All entries should be marked with students’ names, ages, addresses, and the name of the ballet they saw. Email entries to education@nycballet.com or mail to NYCB Education Department, Online Gallery, 70 Lincoln Center Plaza, Rose Building 8th Floor, New York, NY 10023.

• Look up current reviews of the ballet in newspapers or find older ones at the library; read and discuss.

• Write a diary entry about your trip to the ballet, describing the theater and performance.

Post-Performance Discussion Topics:
(These questions are open-ended; italics indicate possible responses and ideas for parents and teachers to use in guiding discussions.)

• What did you like about the ballet? Why?

• Was the ballet as you pictured it in your mind? Explain.

• What was your favorite scene? You favorite character? Why?

• What helped you understand the story even though there were no words in the ballet?

• Describe in great detail one specific movement or scene from the ballet, as if you were trying to bring it to life for someone who hadn’t seen it.
  Think carefully about what you saw and heard, and use very specific adjectives, adverbs, and verbs in your description. Work together with friends to brainstorm interesting ways to describe the movement or scene you chose. How will the people reading or listening to your description get an accurate picture in their mind’s eye of the movement or scene?

• What parts of the ballet (dancing, costumes, music, scenery) were funny? Scary? Calm? Beautiful? Lively? Tense? Serious? Joyful? Action-packed?

• Which dancers’ movements were fluid? Sharp? Floating? Precise? Bouncy? Energetic? Smooth? Controlled? Gliding? Darting? Exuberant? Slow? Fast? Angular? Rounded?

• Which dancers’ movements did you find most interesting? Why?

• When were the dancers high in the air? Down on the ground?
  Many dancers (like the Chinese Tea dancer) jumped high in the air, many women were lifted up high (like the Sugarplum Fairy), and Marie and the Prince flew up high in the sleigh at the end. The Mouse King fell down on the ground, the Arabian dancer did splits on the ground, and many dancers knelt in their poses (like the Flowers and Marzipan Shepherdesses).

• Which costumes moved or made noise while the dancers danced? Did these costumes make the dancing more effective in setting a mood or showing a character?
  Examples include the ladies’ swirling skirts in the party scene, Drosselmeier’s swooping cape, the snowflakes’ and flowers’ tulle skirts that floated up and down when they danced, and the Candy Canes’ jingling costumes.

• What moods did the lighting and scenery convey to you throughout the ballet?

• Do you think George Balanchine’s The Nutcracker™ relates to life today or is it just a fantasy image of an old-fashioned time?

• How did you know that the party scene in Act I happened a long time ago?

• Do you think the dances in Act II were realistic in their representations of the different nationalities and foods? Why?

• Did the dancers do anything that reminded you of athletes’ movements?