Nutcracker Movie Suggestion

Without a doubt, IMO, the only one worth watching is the 1977 Baryshnikov and Kirkland version. Awesome!

You may also be interested in reading the story to her. Dover has a cheap copy of the original by ETA HOffman. It’s only 12 short chapters; that way she knows what the different dancers and their costumes represent.

Rachel

Thank you all.  We won’t be able to go see the actual ballet this year, so I was looking for one to play here before I read this thread.  Found it at Netflix.  It’s in my queue. 

Hi, several of my now-grown children have been very serious about ballet, one even danced professionally for a while before she decided she wanted to do something that changed the world a little more, so believe me I’ve seen a gazillion Nutcrackers in my time, and they are all different!  So unless you take her to see one where they’ve actually filmed the current production, it wouldn’t completely prepare her.  In the areas that might be of most concern to parents of young children:  Some Nutcrackers have really creepy, scary mice, with a frightening battle scene where characters die and there is a loud cannon; some also have children being very cruel to one another.  Others are much less scary.    Some have an extremely erotic and sexily-dressed Arabian dance, while others present this dance in a more wholesome or folk dance style.  You can’t possibly know which you’re getting in to unless you or someone you trust can see this year’s production first.  (They change things year to year.)    Even in other areas that aren’t in themselves problematical, it could be very confusing if she’s spent weeks watching a video and feels she understands it and the live production is different, or her favorite part is missing.  Not only does each company director want to be creative and show off the strengths of his own dancers, but the choreography, costumes and look of the Nutcracker are copyright, so they can’t be exactly copied.  The exact same music might show in one production Chinese acrobats and in another production a dragon parade with a rickshaw; another piece of music might have shepherdesses in pink 18th century dresses with their sheep in one production, and girls with panpipes and modern costumes made of green vines in a different production; a third piece of music could have either French dolls with powder puffs or a dancing bear; a fourth piece of music could have either a man in a candy cane suit doing amazing leaps and twirls, or a few Russian peasant girls dancing, or a group of ladies with ribbon trimmed hoops….Some even change the story—the American Ballet Theater one, (the Baryshnikov and Kirkland one which so many people mentioned)  has beautiful dancing, but it isn’t the classic story because it changes Clara from a little girl into a young woman, for example, which changes many things, and a few productions try to go back to the original folktale which is much “darker” (not many, because it’s not as financially viable and most companies need a profitable Nutcracker to survive.)   We have local productions that try to make various political points, such as ones that kind of make fun of Nutcracker, or challenge gender roles, or make a point about homeless children.  MOST productions are pretty family-friendly, and based mostly on one of the classic productions, and geared towards 5 year old girls because the target audience IS 5 year old girls and their families, and Nutcracker is the ballet company’s bread and butter, and may be the only production they do all year that is NOT in the red.  Anyway, I think it’s great to try to prepare her, and the ballet has SO much to offer that I think you’ll be so happy you went, so I don’t mean to be discouraging.  But I just wanted you to have a realistic idea of how unpredictable Nutcrackers are.  I’d recommend showing her many different versions, so she’ll know Nutcrackers vary.  Best wishes, Sue