The Czech National Ballet is preparing the first premiere of the 2015/2016 season – The Nutcracker and the Cuddly Mouse to the music of Pyotr Ilyich Tchaikovsky and in the choreography of Petr Zuska, Artistic Director of the Czech National Ballet. The premiere will take place on 3rd December 2015 in the National Theatre.After eleven seasons of staging the version of the director and choreographer Youri Vàmos, Petr Zuska and the soloists of the National Ballet are preparing a brand new version. The Nutcracker was commissioned by Ivan Alexandrovich Vsevolozhsky, the director of the Imperial Theatres, and it was created in 1892. Just like The Sleeping Beauty it was carried out in close cooperation of P. I. Tchaikovsky and the ballet master Marius Petipa.
During the 20th century the ballet went through many dramaturgical and choreographic changes ranging from purely classical traditional approaches to many contemporary interpretations. The choreographer and art director of the Czech National Ballet Petr Zuska was looking for a mix of these two aspects: an original conception, yet one that can be considered a classical ballet. “There are fewer than few authors that meet this requirement. I had been toying with my own idea for the Nutcracker for several years and then I thought: The time has come,” says Zuska.
Inspired by the original literary work The Nutcracker and the King of Mice by E. T. A. Hoffmann, Petr Zuska came with a story based on the foundations of magic, love and humour. “In some aspects it is turned over and also somewhat Czech in many ways. At the same time I have respect for Tchaikovsky and I have adapted to the base frame of Petipa’s brevity and tried to add several touches of Hoffman’s symbols and archetypes so that there was logic in the story as well as connection with today’s world,“ explains Zuska. This is how he characterizes his choreographic approach: “There are situations, scenes and some characters that can be seen as exceptions to the rule, but the core parts typical for the Nutcracker are based on the dictionary of the classical ballet. That doesn’t mean I am copying some of the previous choreographies. Everything will be new. Even within the well-known pas de deux and its variations.”
Source: The Czech National Ballet
Josef Bartos
Thank you for your thoughts. One got stuck in my mind – that passion makes us different from AI. Just yesterday I read…I am a dance critic. I am a member of an endangered species