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Alicia Edgar

Exploring Cultural Representations in Classical Ballet

As the holidays draw near, studios and ballet companies around the world rehearse and prepare for their annual performance of the Nutcracker, Tchaikovsky’s most famous composition and ballet. 


Lakes Region Dance's Nutcracker Performance, 2022 Party Scene

However, the performance brings stark concern for the cultural representations presented throughout the ballet, and how they may affect a modern audience.   Many classic ballets include sections that provide cultural misrepresentation and social generalizations.  As ballet critic Alastair Macaulay stated, “clichéd and sometimes offensive views of race remain alive and well across the art form” despite having ballet companies full of performers from various backgrounds and race-blind casting.  (Macaulay, 2012)


The Nutcracker ballet begins on Christmas Eve at a party hosted by the Stahlbaum family.  Guests arrive and gifts are given to the children.  Then, Clara’s mysterious godfather Drosselmeyre arrives with gifts and entertainment for the children- including several life size dolls that move on their own.  He also brings Clara a special gift, a wooden nutcracker.  Jealous, Fritz tries to take it and the nutcracker breaks.  However, Drosselmeyer fixes the nutcracker. 

Lakes Region Dance's Nutcracker Performance, 2022 Mice and Soldiers Fight

After the party is over, Clara falls asleep in the parlor and when she wakes at the stroke of midnight she finds the room filled with mice and the Christmas Tree and the Nutcracker grow to life size.  She finds herself amidst a battle between the mice and the soldiers, led by the Mouse King and her Nutcracker. Clara throws her shoe at the Mouse King, distracting him enough for the Nutcracker to defeat him.  After defeating the Mouse King, the nutcracker turns into a human prince, and the Snow Queen appears, beckoning them into the realm of sweets. 

Alicia as a Rat, 2010 or so

After traveling to the Land of Sweets, the Nutcracker prince recount their victory over the Mouse King and Clara’s bravery, the sweets all perform for her as a thank you- performers/ sweets from all over the world perform- chocolate from Spain, coffee from Arabia, tea from China, candy cane from Russia as well as performances from marzipan, Mother Ginger and her Polichinelles, and the flowers perform a waltz.  At the end of the ballet, the sweets all say goodbye and Clara is brought back home.  (Lannamann, 2023)


This ballet has been being performed for well over a century.  And while the story was designed to bring cultures from around the world to the audience, in a celebration of sorts, the depictions of stereotypes in both the costuming and the music has evolved into racist and culturally demeaning representations.  The most notorious example is found in the Tea, or Chinese dance.  The dancers are often dressed in traditional Chinese robes, have chopsticks placed in their hair, and dance with fans or their fingers pointed up to resemble chopsticks.  (Shaw, 2020)



Their makeup is typically angled, especially around the eyes, a practice known as “yellowface”- putting makeup on to appear of Eastern Asian descent.  The movements are sharp, and often include the dancers shuffling on and off of stage and nodding their heads.  (Fisher, 2003 The movement isn’t based on any historically traditional movement, and heavily stereotypes the culture. (Shaw, 2020) The Coffee, or Arabian dance is often depicted as overly sexual and tries to play into the “mysterious middle eastern setting” having girls dressed in billowy pants and a crop top, or as one critic put it “Egyptian Marilyn Monroe on pointe”  Some depictions of the dance show the male ”treating the woman as his slave and manipulating her body into impressive stretches.”  (Hunter-Mason, 2018) Even the country of origin for this ballet, Russia, faces cultural misappropriation.  The Candy Cane dance is often depicted in furs and bright red clothes to represent communism.  (Shaw, 2020) 


Goffstown High School's Nutcracker, 2016

The ballet world is divided between maintaining the traditions of the ballet performances and wanting to stay up to date and culturally competent. Some ballet companies have signed petitions and agreed to adjust these cultural misrepresentations, however not all of them have.  Especially as you look into smaller dance companies (almost every dance studio does an annual Nutcracker performance- and for reference there’s 79 studios across New Hampshire) you will see that these performances often follow the traditional choreography and costuming.  “Since many ballets were choreographed hundreds of years ago, the line discerning cultural appreciation from appropriation is often blurred and obscured.” (Shaw, 2020) and this sense of ‘its history so it’s not offensive’ is just blatantly untrue, and too often hidden behind.  Ballet has often been hiding in the blinds of racial inequalities, it took until 2015 for the American Ballet Theatre (ABT) to finally hire an African American Principal Dancer, this of course being Misty Copeland- a role model and activist in the ballet community trying to make ballet a more inclusive environment.  


Large ballet companies such as ABT, the Paris Opera Ballet, often get feedback directly from their audiences and critics rather often- outcry about costuming and racially charged looks and movements are called out across social media and by critics in the New York Times and more.  And these efforts have led to change in the past for these big companies.  For example, the Russian Ballet Company was called out across the entire ballet community for their use of blackface in an Instagram post advertising their performance of La Bayadere.  (Shaw, 2020) Companies across the world have also come together to sign a pledge for a movement called A Final Bow for Yellowface, to eliminate this practice among the large ballet companies internationally.  (Lannamann, 2023)  But when it comes to our smaller communities and studios, the word hasn’t reached them.  And we still see studios putting on productions of the Nutcracker blind to the damage they are causing.  Now again, I am not suggesting that the show shouldn’t be performed.  The Nutcracker was an integral part of my upbringing and love for ballet and dance.  However, there are ways to go about choreographing the ballet without cultural appropriation.  And this word needs to make it to all of our dance studios, big and small.  


This ballet isn’t the only ballet to deal with this problem.  But as we move forward in time, while it is important to respect traditional works, it is more important to consider how a modern audience will respond to the pieces, and make sure the message of the story is the priority, rather than the depictions of cultures that feed into stereotypes, bullying, and degradation of an entire community and culture.  So where does that leave us?  Obviously we want to respect cultures but also want to continue bringing this ballet legacy to new audiences.  Being a part of this performance is a dream for many young dancers, myself included.   I have compiled some suggestions and ideas from a variety of sources to make adjustments to the performance in a way that is respectful and still shows the heart of the performance.  


Movement and Choreography: 

The first suggestion is to choose to create new choreography by taking inspiration from the music rather than from historical performances.  The music is beautiful, and was designed to tell a story.  Reach into the music and use your creative talents to express the skills of the dancers and the extent of your choreographic artistry.  However, I do want to recognize that appreciating and representing the cultures displayed in the performance was the original goal, and if you would like to respectfully display culturally conscious choreography I would suggest researching traditional dance styles of the culture the dance is representing.  Even bringing in or speaking with experts in traditional dance of that culture would bring an appropriate respectful lens to the work.  


Casting: 

I would also suggest to consider and respect dancer’s backgrounds when casting.  Understanding that casting in that way isn’t always feasible, in larger companies where they already have a racially diverse cast of performers it is easier to consider ethnicity when casting.  


Costuming: 

In terms of costuming, if the company takes the sweets route instead of the cultural route, they can adjust the costuming accordingly.  Have some fun, and see how the sweets can be personified.  However again, if you want to maintain cultural representation in a respectful way, doing research and bringing in or speaking with experts in the costume creation process is crucial.  In addition, doing away with makeup that is specifically designed to make a dancer appear like that of a different ethnicity (such as yellowface, as was mentioned earlier) 


Cultural Competencies and Awareness: 

Finally, I would recommend putting a cultural awareness/ acknowledgement statement in the program that brings awareness to the topic and has a conversation and respect for the cultures represented.  This has become a common practice for many theatres around the world, typically for land acknowledgements.  It is a way to recognize and start the conversation about culture and respect with the larger audience.  Within the rehearsal and performance process, I also recommend referring to the dances as their “sweets” name rather than their associated nationality to maintain cultural awareness.  And regardless I believe the most important thing to do is to talk about it.  Begin the conversation.  Make sure the space is a safe space for creative work.  I like to use the theatre show “Hairspray” as an example.  You would not perform that show without having many conversations about race and equality, and the history of oppression in America.  I believe that should be the same across the board.  Even when I use a combo from the show, I make a point to have a conversation about that time in our history with our students.  Being open about the history of the performance and what we’re trying to convey is important to maintaining respect and cultural humility.  


Here I would also like to include some articles and information from other researchers and dance critiques who have suggestions and information on how to open up these conversations and make changes accordingly:


We can all make a difference. I have opened this forum as a conversation starter. Talk to your dancers, advocate for those less represented, and respect one another. We all dance for the purpose of spreading creativity and passion in the way we know best- so lets share that in a safe and accepting environment.




References:

Choreography. Final Bow for Yellowface. (n.d.). https://www.yellowface.org/nutchoreography

Fisher, J. (2003). “Nutcracker” nation : how an Old World ballet became a Christmas tradition in the New World. Yale University Press. http://site.ebrary.com/id/10170798

Hunter-Mason, M. (2018). National dances of the nutcracker: A study of racial, cultural, and national depictions in a classical ballet (dissertation). National dances of The Nutcracker: a study of racial, cultural, and national depictions in a classical ballet.

Lannamann, J. (2023, December 12). Exploring history and cultural representation in the nutcracker. King Street Chronicle. https://shgreenwichkingstreetchronicle.org/132584/arts-and-entertainment/exploring-history-and-cultural-representation-in-the-nutcracker/

Macaulay, A. (2012, September 5). Stereotypes in toeshoes. The New York Times. https://www.nytimes.com/2012/09/06/arts/dance/ballet-clings-to-racial-ethnic-and-national-stereotypes.html

Shaw, E. (2020, December 9). The Nutcracker vs. cultural appropriation. The Centreville Sentinel. https://centrevillesentinel.com/10454/everything/arts-and-entertainment/the-nutcracker-vs-cultural-appropriation/

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