Keep the spirit of Christmastime alive with this screening of The Nutcracker
Ballet dancers Denis Rodkin and Anna Nikulina at the Bolshoi Ballet’s Nutcracker performance that will be screened today
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When German author ETA Hoffman wrote a story in 1816 about a Christmas toy that comes to life and defeats an evil mouse king, little would he have imagined that by the end of the century, his work would have lent itself to becoming a classic ballet - a two-act performance the world would celebrate for centuries to come.
The Nutcracker, in fact, became what it is because the most adept minds nurtured it. The libretto was courtesy renowned French writer Alexandre Dumas' adaptation of Hoffman's story. The legendary Russian composer Pyotr Ilyich Tchaikovsky gave the ballet its score. And celebrated ballet masters Marius Petipa and Lev Ivanov choreographed the act, which premiered in St Petersburg.
Solo dancers of Bolshoi Ballet Daria Khohlova, as the Princess Maria, and Artemij Beljakov as the Nutcracker Prince in another production in Hungary. Pic/AFP
Since then, ballet companies from around the world have performed their own productions of The Nutcracker, and one of the most aesthetically produced versions is that of Moscow's Bolshoi Ballet. Kicking off this year's season of ballet screenings in the city is the NCPA-Pathe Live (Paris) screening of the Russian ballet company's version of The Nutcracker. "When it comes to ballet, it's Russia that one thinks of and we will be screening 10 productions from the Bolshoi Ballet through the year," informs Deepa Gahlot, Head - Programming (Theatre & Film), NCPA.
The music in the production continues to be Tchaikovsky's classic score. The choreography is by the renowned ballet dancer Yuri Grigorovich, whose version of The Nutcracker has a unique sense of romance and philosophy.
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