The Chocolate Nutcracker

   The Chocolate Nutcracker is a take on Peter Tchaikovsky’s The Nutcracker that takes place in Harlem during the 1950′s.  In the story we follow a girl named Claire who dreams about herself and a chocolate nutcracker (which she recieved from Uncle Al) traveling the world, seeing all different ethnicities.  This ballet includes many different types of music such as ballet (obviously), tap, modern, jazz, gospel and hip-hop.

   The original Nutcracker was created by Ivan Alexandrovitch Vsevolojsky (the director of The Sleeping Beauty), Marius Petipa (a choreographer), and Peter Ilyitch Tchaikovsky (A very famous composer).  It premiered on December 17, 1892.  It’s been a huge hit ever since.

   Now that I’ve covered the good, let’s move to the not so good.  First of all, this play is supposed to take place in the 1950′s, yet at one point, they played the black Eyed Peas, and at another, they played Rhiana.  Secondly, the costumes were weird.  One kid was dressed up as a Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtle (the red one to be more specific).  Plus, guys should not wear tights.  It should be just a general rule.  Finally, some of the scenes were too distracting.  During one scene, there was this awesome disco ball spinning.  But the problem was, I didn’t even notice people were dancing.  I thought It was some sort of groovy (yes, groovy) intermissi0n or something.

Over all it was a very good ballet.  The dancing was very good and the music was excellent.

By Sam H.