Nutcracker Fact File

Set designer; Anthony Ward
1. Partly realistic but 'larger than life' and almost cartoon like
Movement Styles
1. Contemporary
  1. floorwork
  2. Tilt
  3. Paralell
  4. Grounded movements
2. Ballet
  1. mime
  2. attitude
  3. Grande jete
3. Gestures
  1. kissing
  2. shaking head ( dramatic , over the top )
  3. playing
  4. yawning
4. Spanish Flamenco
  1. wrist rolls
  2. clapped rythms
  3. proud , upright stance
  4. wide lunges
Staging ; proscenium
Number of dancers;24
Re-work of an original ballet but adds comedy and edge to the story
Structure; 2 acts/ 9 episodes
1. Act 1 ; in the orphanage , christmas eve Govenors etc ,then they go to the Frozen Lake
2. Act 2; Sweeties Land ,Wedding , back in the orphanage
Themes
1. Dreams and Fantasy
  1. over-sized feathers and pillow hanging
  2. twins become cupid
  3. wings
  4. sweetie land
  5. pjyamas
  6. nutcracker comes to life
  7. Crack in the wall reveals a new world
  8. Tree grows enormous
  9. Fritz becomes Prince BonBon
  10. Sugar becomes Princess Sugar
2. Love and growing up
  1. Nutcracker becomes a man she falls in love with
  2. Clara gets older (shown by the change in her clothes )
  3. At the end , when grown up , she finds out the boy she liked from the orphanage also liked her back , they escape together
3. Sexual Awakening
  1. Nutcracker takes his shirt off and it catches Claras attention
  2. Knickerbocker glory is seductive
  3. Gobstoppers are sexually lewd
  4. Licking gestures throughout the Sweetie Land sections
4. Bourne said " dreams have to develop out of some lived experience "
  1. This was his reasoning for the roles of the characters changing e.g Fritz from the orphanage turned into Prince BonBon in Sweetie Land
Stimulus
1. Charles Dickens; christmas carol , Olivier Twist ,nicholas Nickelby ( the Dotheboys hall )
2. Photographs of Victorian childhood
3. Museum of childhood ( in London )
4. Avisit to a reproduction of a Victorian schoolroom in London
Dance style ideas/ inspiration
1. Social dancing
  1. ballroom , 1960's style twists , 1970's style , tango
2. BMX / skateboarding
  1. Gobstoppers dance , sideways travelling , jumps , fast .
3. Ice skating
  1. Used Sonja Henie as his inspiration . She was a norwegian Ice skater
General
1. Choreographer; Matthew Bourne
2. Company name; Adventures in Motion Pictures
3. First performed in August 1992
4. Accompaniment; Pytor Tchaichovsky
  1. Classical and Orchestral
5. Costume Designer; Anthony Ward
  1. Colourful and over the top
  2. Literal references to sweets
6. Lighting; Howard Harrison
  1. theatrical lighting-helps to create the atmosphere

Next up

Nutcracker Fact File

Description

Resource summary

Media attachments

Similar

	Created by Tamara Lancaster almost 9 years ago