History Trivia / TheNutcracker

* ChildrenVoicingChildren: The very first performance in 1892 had young students from the Imperial Ballet School portraying the children. Many later companies and productions (most notably the New York City Ballet) continue this tradition, both to help the target audience identify with the characters and to give ballet students experience for stage performances.

** The New York City Ballet's 2021 production had a much older cast playing the children in the party scenes (12-year olds vs. 7-11-year olds), as children younger than 11 were not yet eligible for the COVID-19 vaccine at the time rehearsals and performances began. This necessitated a rebuilding of the costumes and some minor changes to the choreography (only four Polichinelles could fit underneath Mother Ginger's dress, with the rest hiding behind her).

** Some versions of the ballet have an older or adult dancer portraying Marie/Clara, to allow for more complicated dancing and choreography.

* ChildrenVoicingChildren: ''The Nutcracker'' is probably the most well-known ballet to have actual children playing the children. The very first performance in 1892 used young students from the Imperial Ballet School, and many later companies and productions (most notably the New York City Ballet) continue this tradition, both to help the target audience identify with the characters and to give ballet students experience for stage performances.

* AdaptationOverdosed: In its more than a century of existence, there have been numerous versions of the ballet made, to varying degrees of faithfulness to the original choreography. A list of some of them can be found [[https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_productions_of_The_Nutcracker here]]. In addition, there are a number of adaptatons for film and television, both live-action and animated, and several versions adapted for ice skating.

* Some versions of the ballet have an older or adult dancer portraying Marie/Clara, to allow for more complicated dancing and choreography.
* The New York City Ballet's 2021 production had a much older cast playing the children in the party scenes (12-year olds vs. 7-11-year olds), as children younger than 11 were not yet eligible for the COVID-19 vaccine at the time rehearsals and performances began. This necessitated a rebuilding of the costumes and some minor changes to the choreography (only four Polichinelles could fit underneath Mother Ginger's dress, with the rest hiding behind her).

* ChildrenVoicingChildren: ''The Nutcracker'' is probably the most well-known ballet to have actual children playing children. The very first performance of the ballet in 1892 used students from the Imperial Ballet School, and many later companies and productions (most notably the New York City Ballet) continue this tradition, to give young ballet students experience for stage performances.

* CutSong: The Act II divertissements were also supposed to feature a Gigue (English Dance), which was ultimately cut from the final production. A handful of modern productions add it back.
* DawsonCasting: In the New York City Ballet's 2021 production had a much older cast playing the children in the party scenes (12-year olds vs. 7-11-year olds), as children younger than 11 were not yet eligible for the COVID-19 vaccine at the time rehearsals and performances began. This necessitated a rebuilding of the costumes and some minor changes to the choreography (only four Polichinelles could fit underneath Mother Ginger's dress, with the rest hiding behind her)

* ChildrenVoicingChildren: The very first performance of the ballet in 1892 had actual children (in this case, students of the Imperial Ballet School) playing the children. Some later companies and productions (most notably the New York City Ballet) continue this tradition, to give young ballet students experience for stage performances. ''The Nutcracker'' is probably the most well-known ballet to do this.

* PopCultureUrbanLegends: There is a bit of copypasta floating around the Internet claiming, among other things, that in Creator/ETAHoffmann's original story Marie lived in a loveless household, that she was depicted lying in a pool of her own blood after injuring herself, and that her parents punished her for it by locking her in her room until she admitted she'd been naughty. Only the second part is true: Marie breaks the glass in the front of her doll cabinet and slices her arm open, and her mother finds her lying there surrounded by her dolls and passed out from loss of blood. Her mother does mildly scold her for the accident, but only because she's been [[AngerBornOfWorry worried]], and her parents don't confine her to her room as a punishment, but because she needs to recover from such an injury.[[note]]It also could be confusing another scene; the battle between the Nutcracker and Mouse King is off-screen but when the Nutcracker returns depending on translation, it usually says that "the Mouse King has been bathed in his own blood."[[/note]]

* DawsonCasting: In the New York City Ballet's 2021 production, 11-12-year-olds played 8-year-olds in the party scenes, as children younger than 11 were not yet eligible for the COVID-19 vaccine at the time rehearsals and performances began.

* CutSong: The Act II divertissements were also supposed to feature a Gigue (English Dance), which was ultimately cut from the final production. A handful of modern ballets add it back.

* ChildrenVoicingChildren: The very first performance of the ballet in 1892 had actual children (in this case, students of the Imperial Ballet School) playing the children. Some later companies and productions (most notably the New York City Ballet) continue this tradition, to give young ballet students experience for stage performances.

* ChildrenVoicingChildren: The very first performance of the ballet in 1892 had actual children (in this case, students of the Imperial Ballet School) playing the children. Some later companies and productions (most notably the New York City Ballet) continue this tradition, at the same time giving young ballet students experience for stage performances.

* WhatCouldHaveBeen: The Act II divertissements were also supposed to feature a Gigue (English Dance), which was ultimately cut from the final production, and is rarely used today.

* ChildrenVoicingChildren: The very first performance of the ballet in 1892 had actual children (in this case, students of the Imperial Ballet School) playing the children. Some later companies and productions (most notably the version by George Balanchine) continue this tradition, at the same time giving young ballet students experience for stage performances.