#Royal Swedish Ballet
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Luca Righi | Royal Swedish Ballet
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Jonatan Davidsson - Soloist, Royal Swedish Ballet - photo by Aleksandar Antonijevic
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As long as we're discussing different filmed performances of The Nutcracker, I'd like to mention a very interesting one that I just discovered on YouTube: the Royal Swedish Ballet production.
I would share the link, but it's blocked from being shared on other sites besides YouTube.
It dispenses with the ballet's traditional characters (Marie/Clara, Godfather Drosselmeyer, the Sugar Plum Fairy, etc.), and combines the plot with that of a popular Swedish children's book, Peter and Lotta's Christmas by Elsa Beskow.
As it happens, I grew up with Elsa Beskow's books despite not being Swedish, because my mom discovered them in English translation and fell in love with them when I was in kindergarten. The Peter and Lotta series is about two little orphaned siblings who live with three middle aged sisters, Aunt Green, Aunt Brown, and Aunt Lavender; the other major character is their family friend, Uncle Blue.
In this Nutcracker production, Lotta starts out in the Marie/Clara role while Peter replaces Fritz, but they both go through the magical adventure at night rather than just Lotta. Uncle Blue replaces Drosselmeyer, while the three foster aunts provide comic relief, and the role of the Nutcracker Prince is taken by a friendly charcoal-burner from the Peter and Lotta's Christmas book. During the Act I Christmas party, the charcoal-burner and Uncle Blue's housemaid share obvious romantic feelings, which Peter and Lotta encourage them to act on. Then, in the battle, the maid is the one who saves the day by squashing the Rat King with her broom. Thus she becomes the Nutcracker Prince's lady-love, sheds her plain serving clothes to reveal her true beauty, and becomes the Act II prima ballerina who dances the pas de deux with the Prince.
This staging also incorporates aspects of a traditional Swedish Christmas that obviously aren't seen in most productions. Instead of the traditional soldier, the nutcracker is shaped like the Yule Goat!
I'm not sure anyone who didn't grow up with Elsa Beskow's books would fully appreciate this production, but it is a very interesting one.
It makes me want to come up with my own Nutcracker production concept based on some other children's book series. Madeline, for example: I think a Madeline-themed Nutcracker could be fun...
@themousefromfantasyland, @ariel-seagull-wings
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maya.schonbrun
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A NIGHT AT THE OPERA by KAROLINA HENKE (Sweden 🇸🇪)
📍 THE ROYAL SWEDISH OPERA
The Royal Swedish Opera includes the Royal Ballet, Young at the Opera, the Royal Swedish Orchestra and the Royal Swedish Opera Chorus.
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master ballet academy has been getting a LOT of traction online since a photographer began posting videos of their students on instagram - i'm curious to know if you've seen their videos and what you think of their dancers? one of their graduates (maya schonbrun) has just debuted o/o in her very first season at royal swedish ballet??!! kinda crazy stuff. the girls especially look to be very talented
I don't follow them but see clips recommended to me on insta and such. They have talented students and the school collectively churns out some incredible technicians, especially girls but often makes *questionable* coaching and stagings decisions. There's a good chunk of showboating, often at the expense of classical choreography, musicality, and finesse. Not a critique of the students, but more of the choices made by their teachers.
I have seen the video of Maya Schonbrun's debut. Obviously, an incredible talent, and that artistic management trusts her with such a debut in her first year as a professional speaks volumes. In the brief clips I saw, she looked much more mature and refined than the competition clips I remember seeing from her in her final year at Masters.
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Princess Estelle of Sweden, Prince Oscar of Sweden, Prince Alexander of Sweden and Prince Gabriel of Sweden watch the Nutcracker ballet performance, at The Royal Swedish Opera in Stockholm, Sweden -December 16th 2023.
📷 : Sören Vilks/Prinsparet.
#princess estelle#prince oscar of sweden#prince oscar#prince alexander#prince gabriel#prince gabriel of sweden#swedish royal family#sweden#2023#december 2023#nutcracker#royal children#my edit
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THIS DAY IN GAY HISTORY
based on: The White Crane Institute's 'Gay Wisdom', Gay Birthdays, Gay For Today, Famous GLBT, glbt-Gay Encylopedia, Today in Gay History, Wikipedia, and more … April 2
1805 – Born: Hans Christian Andersen, often referred to using the initials H. C. (d.1875). Andersen was a Danish author, fairy tale writer, and poet noted for his children's stories. These include "The Steadfast Tin Soldier", "The Snow Queen", "The Little Mermaid", "Thumbelina", "The Little Match Girl", and "The Ugly Duckling".
During his lifetime he was acclaimed for having delighted children worldwide, and was feted by royalty. His poetry and stories have been translated into more than 150 languages. They have inspired motion pictures, plays, ballets, and animated films.
Hans Christian Andersen was born in the town of Odense, Denmark. The family was associated with Danish royalty, through employment or trade. Whatever the reason, King Frederick VI took a personal interest in him as a youth and paid for a part of his education. Later, Hans Christian was forced to support himself. He worked as a weaver's apprentice and, later, for a tailor. At 14, he moved to Copenhagen to seek employment as an actor. Having an excellent soprano voice, he was accepted into the Royal Danish Theatre, but his voice soon changed, and he began to focus on writing instead.
Jonas Collin, who, following a chance encounter with Andersen, immediately felt a great affection for him, sent him to a grammar school in Slagelse, covering all his expenses. Andersen had already published his first story, The Ghost at Palnatoke's Grave, in 1822. Though not a keen student, he also attended school at Elsinore until 1827.
He later said his years in school were the darkest and most bitter of his life. At one school, he lived at his schoolmaster's home. There he was abused in order "to improve his character", he was told. He later said the faculty had discouraged him from writing in general, causing him to enter a state of depression.
In 1833 he received a small traveling grant from the King, enabling him to set out on the first of many journeys through Europe.
It was during 1835 that Andersen published the first installment of his immortal Fairy Tales. More stories, completing the first volume, were published in 1836 and 1837. The quality of these stories was not immediately recognized, and they sold poorly.
His true genius was however proved in the miscellany the Picture-Book without Pictures (1840). The fame of his fairy tales had grown steadily; a second series began in 1838 and a third in 1845. Andersen was now celebrated throughout Europe, although his native Denmark still showed some resistance.
In June 1847, Andersen paid his first visit to England and enjoyed social success. The Countess of Blessington invited him to her parties where intellectual and famous people could meet, and it was at one party that he met Charles Dickens for the first time. They shook hands and walked to the veranda, much joy to Andersen, and he wrote of it in his diary.
In Andersen's early life, his private journal records his failure to have sexual relations. Andersen often fell in love with unattainable women. The most famous of these was the opera soprano Jenny Lind. One of his stories, "The Nightingale", was a written expression of his passion for Lind, and became the inspiration for her nickname, the "Swedish Nightingale". Andersen was often shy around women and had extreme difficulty in proposing to Lind. When Lind was boarding a train to take her to an opera concert, Andersen gave Lind a letter of proposal. Her feelings towards him were not the same; she saw him as a brother, writing to him in 1844 "farewell... God bless and protect my brother is the sincere wish of his affectionate sister, Jen."
Just as with his interest in women, Andersen would become attracted to non-reciprocating men. For example, Andersen wrote to Edvard Collin:
"I languish for you as for a pretty Calabrian wench... my sentiments for you are those of a woman. The femininity of my nature and our friendship must remain a mystery."
Collin, who did not prefer men, wrote in his own memoir: "I found myself unable to respond to this love, and this caused the author much suffering." Likewise, the infatuations of the author for the Danish dancer Harald Scharff and Carl Alexander, the young hereditary duke of Saxe-Weimar-Eisenach, did not result in any relationships.
In the spring of 1872, Andersen fell out of his bed and was severely hurt. He never fully recovered, but he lived until August 4, 1875. Shortly before his death, he had consulted a composer about the music for his funeral, saying: "Most of the people who will walk after me will be children, so make the beat keep time with little steps." At the time of his death, he was an internationally renowned and treasured artist. He was receiving a stipend from the Danish Government as a "national treasure".
1905 – Serge Lifar, Russian dancer, born (d.1986); Lifar was the last of Diaghilev's dancer- lovers. He used his looks, charisma and talent, fuelled by his fierce ambition to become one of the greatest dancers and choreographers of the 20th century.
Some say that Diaghilev was instantly drawn to the handsome 18 year-old dancer, others suggest that Lifar made sure Diaghilev noticed him. One slight fault had to be corrected before the 'honeymoon' - and before the stardom that 'marriage brought'. "Don't sit in the sun. The paraffin will melt," his colleagues teased. But the nose job had its intended results. Lifar, just twenty, became the lead dancer of the Ballet Russes and Diaghilev's lover, as well. His charm, persistance, whatever, paid off and he joined the list of Diaghilev star dancers/lovers in the footsteps of Nijinsky, Leonide Massine & Anton Dolin. This meant he was cast in leading roles and encouraged to choreograph, as Diaghilev had done before.
He was at Diaghilev's bedside when he died in 1929, but the maestro's death left the Ballet Russes in chaos. However, Lifar was invited to star in a production at the Paris Opera Ballet, to be choreographed by George Balanchine, but his illness saw Lifar taking his place and he successfully went on to become ballet master and director of the Paris Opera Ballet until 1957 - although he was accused of collaborating with the German High Command during the Occupation of Paris and banished between 1944 and 1947.
He remained a major figure in international ballet for the rest of his life and was, with Boris Kochno, Diaghilev's last love, the last of the line from the great Diaghilev. He died in Switzerland in 1986.
1914 – Sir Alec Guinness, English actor (d.2000); Guinness married the artist, playwright, and actress, Merula Salaman in 1938, and they had a son in 1940, Matthew Guinness, who later became an actor.
In his biography of the actor, Alec Guinness: The Unknown, Garry O'Connor reveals that Guinness was arrested and fined 10 guineas for a homosexual act in a public lavatory in Liverpool in 1946. Guinness avoided publicity by giving his name as Herbert Pocket to both police and court. The name Herbert Pocket was taken from the character in Charles Dickens' Great Expectations that Guinness had played on stage in 1939 and was also about to play in the film adaptation. The incident did not become public knowledge until April 2001, eight months after his death.
The authenticity of this incident has been doubted, however, including by Piers Paul Read, Guinness's official biographer, who believes that Guinness was mixed up with John Gielgud, who was infamously arrested for such an act at the same period of time, though Read nonetheless acknowledges Guinness's essential bisexuality.
1945 – Linda Hunt, is an American film, stage and television actress known for her role as Henrietta Lange in the CBS series NCIS: Los Angeles. After making her film debut playing Mrs. Oxheart in Popeye (1980), Hunt portrayed the male character Billy Kwan, her breakthrough performance, in The Year of Living Dangerously (1982). Her role as Billy Kwan earned her an Academy Award, an Australian Film Institute Award, a Golden Globe nomination and various other awards.
She has had great success in films such as The Bostonians (1984), Dune (1984), Silverado (1985), Eleni (1985), Waiting for the Moon (1987), The Relic (1997), Dragonfly (2002), Yours Mine and Ours (2005) and Stranger Than Fiction (2006).
Hunt has also had a successful television career. From 1997 to 2002, Hunt played the recurring role of Judge Zoey Hiller on The Practice. She currently plays Henrietta 'Hetty' Lange on the CBS television series NCIS Los Angeles, a role she has played since its debut in 2009. The role earned her a Teen Choice Award nomination in 2011. She is also the narrator in the God of War video game franchise.
Hunt is is 4 feet 9 inches (1.45 m) tall. In high school, she was diagnosed as having hypopituitary dwarfism. She does not have Turner Syndrome as some blogs have stated.
Hunt is openly lesbian, and since 1987 has lived in Los Angeles with her wife Karen Klein, whom she married in 2008.
1952 – David M. Halperin is an American theorist in the fields of gender studies, queer theory, critical theory, material culture and visual culture. He is the cofounder of GLQ: A Journal of Lesbian and Gay Studies, and author of several books including Before Pastoral (1983) and One Hundred Years of Homosexuality (1990).
Halperin is openly gay. In 1990, he launched a campaign to oppose the presence of the ROTC on the MIT campus, on the grounds that it discriminated against gay and lesbian students. That same year, he received death threats for his gay activism. In 1992, he was accused of sexually harassing a male assistant professor, Theoharis C. Theoharis, in his department at MIT. In 2003, the Michigan chapter of the American Family Association tried to ban his course entitled 'How to Be Gay: Male Homosexuality and Initiation.' In 2010, he wrote an open letter to Michigan's 52nd Attorney General Mike Cox to denounce the homophobic harassment by one of the latter's staffers, Andrew Shirvell, of a University of Michigan student, Chris Armstrong.
Halperin uses the method of genealogy to study the history of homosexuality. He argues that Aristophanes' speech in Plato's Symposium does not indicate a "taxonomy" of heterosexuals and homosexuals comparable to modern ones. According to Simon LeVay, Halperin believes that "Aristophanes did not recognize a category of homosexual people, but only the separate categories of men-loving men and women-loving women" and that he "divided men-loving men into two independent 'sexualities' - the love of youths for adult men and the love of adult men for youths."
1952 – A New York court dismisses the disorderly conduct charge of a man who asked an undercover police officer to go to his apartment for "fun."
1954 – Walter Gibbons (d.1994) was an American record producer, early disco DJ and remixer.
Aside from being gay, Walter Gibbons was unlike most DJs at disco’s dawn. Born April 2, 1954 in Brooklyn, New York, he was slight, introverted and Irish-American when his rivals were outgoing and black or Italian-American.
Long before he got his own first big break at Galaxy 21 in 1975, Gibbons made things happen for himself. In 1972, at age 18, he met his first lover Rich Flores, and the pair lived together with an acetate lathe that made possible their own acetate label, Melting Pot Sound, which bootlegged the underground club jams of the early ’70s. By the time Galaxy 21 – an afterhours Chelsea club at 256 West 23rd Street – opened in August 1975, he’d broken up with Flores, and was more than ready for Manhattan.
Fellow Galaxy 21 DJ Joey Madonia – who later became Levan’s lover and lighting man – describes the multi-floored main room as a simple, unadorned space: Nothing distracted from the lighting and music. You couldn’t even tell it was a club from the outside.
He was an important part of the early 1970s New York City disco underground scene, influencing garage and house music DJs like Frankie Knuckles and Larry Levan. He also laid the foundations for early 1980s experimental Chicago house music. One of the early pioneers of beat-mixing, and known for considerably more skillful mixing than many better-known DJs at the time, he is cited by many early pioneers of the house-music scene as an influence. His "Disco Blend" remix of Double Exposure's "Ten Percent" was once described by UK DJ Ashley Beedle as providing a "blueprint for house music".
Gibbons was known as "the DJ's DJ" because his peers would go out of their way to hear him play. Kool DJ Herc brought Dub to the New York City music scene, where Gibbons and other remixers played it and applied dub techniques to dance music. He played disco songs, focusing more on the percussion than the melody, and "stretched out the grooves so much that they teetered on the edge of motionlessness." Like Arthur Russell, who recorded with him, Gibbons "used dub as a dislocating device, preventing disco's simple groove from developing under the dancers' feet."
Gibbons became a reborn Christian in the 1980s, but still managed to turn out cutting edge mixes during this period (he simply focused on songs and lyrics that did not offend his beliefs). He died of AIDS-related symptoms in 1994.
1961 – Christopher Meloni is an American actor. He is known for his television roles as NYPD Detective Elliot Stabler on the NBC legal drama Law & Order: Special Victims Unit for its first 12 seasons and its spin-off Law & Order: Organized Crime, and as inmate Chris Keller on the HBO prison drama Oz. In June 2012, he returned to HBO as the vampire Roman on the main cast of True Blood for the series' fifth season. Meloni also starred in and executive produced the Syfy series Happy! from 2017 to 2019. His films include Man of Steel, Wet Hot American Summer, Harold & Kumar Go to White Castle, 12 Monkeys, Runaway Bride, 42, and Fear and Loathing in Las Vegas.
Meloni was born in Washington, D.C., the youngest of three children of Cecile (née Chagnon), a homemaker, and Charles Robert Meloni (1927–2012), an endocrinologist. His maternal ancestry is French Canadian, and he is a descendant of Matthias Farnsworth. His paternal ancestry is Italian, with roots in Velva [it],in the municipality of the town Castiglione Chiavarese, (province of Genoa, in the region of Liguria.)
Meloni worked as a construction worker prior to getting his acting break. He has also worked as a bouncer, bartender, and personal trainer. Meloni worked his way up the acting ladder with commercials, short-lived TV series, and bit parts in a number of films. His first noticeable role was the hotheaded son of a Mafia don in the 1996 thriller Bound. He appeared as Robbie Sinclair's friend Spike in Dinosaurs in the early 1990s. He played criminal Jimmy Liery in eight episodes of NYPD Blue during 1996-1997 and the fiancé of Julia Roberts's character in the 1999 romantic comedy Runaway Bride.
From 1998 to 2003, Meloni portrayed the bisexual criminal Chris Keller on the HBO series Oz with its famous nude scene.
Meloni has appeared in many public service announcements in support of lesbian, gay, bisexual, and transgender issues. In 1999, Meloni jokingly kissed Lee Tergesen (who played Tobias Beecher, Meloni's on-screen boyfriend on Oz) at an awards dinner for GLAAD. In 2006, Meloni was given the Human Rights Campaign's Equality Award, along with actor Jake Gyllenhaal and director Ang Lee, for his work on behalf of LGBT issues. In addition, in 2011, Meloni appeared in the Human Rights Campaign's "New Yorkers for Marriage Equality" video. Meloni was included in the 2006 edition of People magazine's Sexiest Men Alive.
2013 – Uruguay senate approves same-sex marriage by a vote of 23-8, becoming the fourteenth country in the world to legalize marriage equality.
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20 Qs for ficcers
I have been tagged by a smorgasbord of wonderful people - @celaestis1, @cha-melodius, @kiwiana-writes and @welcometololaland. One of them even sent me flowers (thanks @clottedcreamfudge, you are a constant delight).
1. How many works do you have on AO3?
12!
2. What’s your total AO3 word count?
101,280 - not too shabby, I like that it's a round number.
3. What fandoms do you write for?
Red, White & Royal Blue, The Thrilling Adventure Hour, Tamora Pierce, *cough* Angels Unlimited...
4. What are your top 5 fics by kudos?
Just Like a Dealer (which I am HESITANT about including because, once again, I only wrote the first paragraph)
Henry Fox: All-American Hero
Red, White and Royal Ballet
Alien Magic
Stringbean
5. Do you respond to comments? Why or why not?
No! I very rarely respond to comments. Right now, it's because I don't have time, but it's also because every comment will be 'aaaah thank you <3' and that feels like artificially inflating my comment count sometimes. Having said that, if people have questions, I tend to answer them.
6. What is the fic you wrote with the angstiest ending?
It was gonna be Ghosted before @clottedcreamfudge talked me out of it. Maybe When a Dancer Dies, because the 'happy ending' is massively open to interpretation.
7. What’s the fic you wrote with the happiest ending?
Either Henry Fox: All-American Hero or Red, White and Royal Ballet. I mean, I'm writing for a novel with a strong romantic element - it's unusual NOT to write happy endings.
8. Do you get hate on fics?
I haven't yet, but hey! I probably will! And when that happens I will specifically write them into my next fics and make them suffer horrible fates!
9. Do you write smut? If so, what kind?
I have written explicit stuff before, but not yet for RWRB. However, @dumbpeachjuice left a comment on All-American Hero that has me considering an expansion/missing scene in that world.
10. Do you write crossovers? What’s the craziest one you’ve written?
The only crossover I have is Alien Magic, which is two worlds by the same author, Tamora Pierce, and me crossing over characters from one into the universe of the other, but they're aware that the other world exists, it's just on the other side of the globe from them.
11. Have you ever had a fic stolen?
If I have, I don't know about it! Doubtful, though.
12. Have you ever had a fic translated?
No, but I did receive my first comment in Spanish yesterday which made me very happy.
13. Have you ever co-written a fic before?
YES and I have also co-written a book with my BFF.
14. What’s your all time favourite ship?
Fun fact: my fiance and I almost had 'fictional couples' as the theme for our wedding tables but abandoned it because two bridesmaids (u know who u are) would have wanted to sit at different tables.
Top three: Frank and Sadie Doyle, Mel Beeby and Brice de Winter (thoroughly not canon) and, of course, Henry Fox-Mountchristen-Windsor and Alex Claremont-Diaz.
15. What’s a WIP you want to finish but doubt you ever will?
Henry as a contestant on a pottery show, Alex as the kiln assistant who became a much bigger part in season 2 and has a lot to say.
16. What are your writing strengths?
Punctuality. Does that count? Errr, okay, I can write a banger of a sentence now and then and I'm good at description.
17. What are your writing weaknesses?
Em-dashes, and trying to be funny. The funniness comes in when I'm not trying too hard.
18. Thoughts on writing dialogue in another language in fic?
It's difficult and I haven't done it yet! I'm learning Swedish (445 days in a row so far) and what gets me is sentence structure. Sometimes it's structured like English, sometimes it's structured like Early Modern English, sometimes the structure is specifically foreign and I fuck it up. However, I really liked what Junot Diaz did in Oscar Wao, which is not italicising words in other languages because that's not how the character thinks.
19. First fandom you wrote for?
The very very very first fanfic published somewhere was LoTR. It was about the Entwives and it was dull.
20. Favorite fic you’ve written?
Ghosted. Or Cold Cases, Lost Causes. Sometimes you want to chew on some PLOT, and Ghosted deals with death, and Cold Cases deals with the ethics of podcasts covering true crime. I can't wait to release the last 3 chapters because I'm proud of how I've ended it!
Tagging -- ah shit, it seems that everyone has been tagged. Okay, if you want to do this, do it and say I tagged you. I love you all!
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King Carl Gustaf, Queen Silvia, Crown Princess Victoria and Prince Carl Philip attended the anniversary gala of The Royal Swedish Opera at Royal Opera House in Stockholm, which was held to celebrate the opera's 250th anniversary. The Royal Swedish Opera is Sweden’s national theatre for opera and ballet, and was founded by Gustav III in 1773. Jun. 18, 2023.
📷 Cordon Press
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Luca Righi | Royal Swedish Ballet
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Nathalie Nordquist and Jonatan Davidsson - Royal Swedish Ballet (Kungliga Operan är Sveriges nationalscen för opera och balett)
#Nathalie Nordquist#Jonatan Davidsson#ballet couples#Royal Swedish Ballet#Kungliga Operan#ballerino#ballerina#bailarín#danseur#dancer#tänzer#ballet#dance#boys of ballet#ballet men
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my Skater Boy Simon x Ballet Dancer Wilhelm fic is out!
the human eye is god's loneliest creation
“Thank you,” Simon says to Wilhelm, startling him. He looks even more red in the face and a little bit like he can’t believe what he just did. It’s… cute. So cute, even, that Simon kind of wants to take his face in between his hands and pinch his cheeks and then kiss him on the lips. Maybe.
“What for?”
“Well, I was about to punch him on his sorry face, so you saved me a lot of trouble.”
“Oh,” Wilhelm replies, bringing his hand to the back of his neck. He chuckles, looks at Simon’s eyes and gives him a tiny smile. “No problem.”
Ok, so, definitely kiss him on the lips.
or, Simon skates in the park right in front of the Royal Swedish Ballet School, where Wilhelm is preparing for his last year's performance. They find something in each other they couldn't get from anywhere else.
it's an ongoing project, but i have a serious problem and can't keep anything to myself! i hope you all enjoy it, and i'll make an effort to remind myself to update here every time there's a new chapter (you could follow me on twitter too, though, because i never forget to update it there! it's the same @ as here!)
byeee xoxo
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The Royal Swedish Ballet's Peter and Lotta-themed Nutcracker production has made me want to imagine other Nutcrackers themed to other classic children's books.
In particular, I've been imagining a Madeline-themed Nutcracker. It would combine the traditional Nutcracker plot with Madeline's Christmas, just as the Swedish production combined it with Peter and Lotta's Christmas.
It would start out with the plot of Madeline's Christmas: the eleven other girls and Miss Clavel all catch colds on Christmas Eve, so they can't go home from the boarding school for the holiday, and Madeline has to take care of them all.
During the Overture, the curtain would open on a Parisian street, and the girls would enter in their iconic two straight lines with Miss Clavel. Then there would be a short fantasy dance sequence, showing the girls imagining their families as they look forward to seeing them soon. Madeline would get particular emphasis, of course, and so would her parents in the fantasy. (Because, no, Madeline isn't an orphan. Her parents are alive and well in the books and in the earlier cartoons. The 1998 live action movie and the 1999 animated Madeline: Lost in Paris both made her an orphan, but this ballet is a separate canon.) But then, during the Overture's last bars, the eleven other girls and Miss Clavel would all gradually start sneezing, coughing, clutching their sore throats, etc.
The first scene proper takes place in the girls' dormitory, and show Madeline bustling from bed to bed, bringing the other girls tea, and giving some to the also-sick Miss Clavel when she comes in to check on them too. At one point she might stop to rest and gaze sadly at a photo of her parents. But then Pepito climbs up to the window and signals to her. (Pepito doesn't appear in Madeline's Christmas, but we need a mischievous little boy character to take Fritz's place in the Nutcracker plot.) They privately conspire together, then Pepito leaves, and a few moments later a knock is heard at the downstairs door, and Madeline goes to answer it. Then she reenters with Pepito, both dressed in special homemade costumes, and they invite the girls to put on their shawls and slippers and come downstairs.
The girls and Miss Clavel file down to the sitting room, where Pepito's parents and their servants from next door are just putting the finishing touches on a Christmas tree. Madeline announces that since they can't go home, they'll have a "Christmas at School" Party.
Happy dances proceed, with even Miss Clavel being persuaded to join in despite her initial shyness. At one point, though Pepito's "menagerie" of frogs, bugs, rats, etc. get loose from their cages and causes some funny chaos.
Suddenly, there's an unexpected knock at the door. Madeline answers it. Enter the Middle Eastern merchant/magician from the book of Madeline's Christmas, who is freezing and seeking shelter. He'll be taking the place of Drosselmeyer in this story. Madeline lets him in and warms him up with blankets and tea. As thanks, he performs a magic show for the girls and Pepito.
To fit the plot, I'll make the Magician into a toy merchant instead of a rug merchant. (I don't mind taking that liberty – after all, The Nutcracker, or Peter and Lotta's Christmas adds a romance between the charcoal-burner and the maid, when in the original book of Peter and Lotta's Christmas the charcoal-burner is a married man with children of his own.) Because it's Christmas, he gives each child a free toy from his supply. Madeline, of course, gets a nutcracker – maybe an especially French-looking soldier that resembles Napoleon. But of course mischievous Pepito tries to snatch it from her, and accidentally breaks it.
From this point on we follow the plot of The Nutcracker more closely. The party ends and everyone goes off to bed. But then Madeline sneaks downstairs in the night. She falls asleep holding her nutcracker, the Magician reappears, the room grows enormous, etc. But I don't think the enemy should be mice, because Madeline likes mice. Instead I think we'll use Pepito's menagerie of insects, bats, frogs, and rats, with a Rat King as their leader. This is why I included them in the earlier scene: to establish their existence.
To fight them, instead of the traditional toy soldier army, the Nutcracker would lead a mixed army of the other girls' dolls and stuffed toys, whose combat methods are unconventional but effective. Spunky Madeline will also play a more active role in the battle than Marie/Clara usually does.
After the Rat King is killed, the Nutcracker (played by an adult), will turn into a Prince who looks very much like Madeline's father, as we saw him in her fantasy and photo earlier. He'll be played by the same dancer and dressed in the same colors. Then, after the snowflake waltz (which will be much more urban than usual, with a theme of "snowfall in Paris"), he'll whisk Madeline away to the land of the Sugar Plum Fairy, who, of course, will resemble her mother. The Fairy will be emphasized as the Prince's love interest, from whom he's been separated ever since he was turned into a nutcracker. Instead of Marie/Clara's traditional dream of romance for herself, Madeline's dream of the Prince and the Fairy clearly reflects her longing to spend Christmas with her parents.
All the dances will play out as usual, although they might be themed to traditional French desserts and such. Since Pepito and his family are Spanish, I might also want their dancers to perform the Spanish dance, with Pepito providing comedy.
At the very end, we find Madeline still asleep downstairs on Christmas morning. Miss Clavel comes down, all well again and dressed, and then a knock is heard at the door. Miss Clavel answers it, and in come Madeline's parents to greet her just as she wakes up. The other girls' parents start to enter close behind them, and the girls file downstairs to meet them as the curtain falls.
Can someone please find a choreographer to help me bring this outline to life? :)
@ariel-seagull-wings
#the nutcracker#madeline#madeline's christmas#ballet#ballet synopsis#outline#choreography#imaginary#unreality
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Prima Ballerina Assolutas
I was reading Maya Plisetskaya’s autobiography (great read!) and it got me thinking. I still find it sad that the phrase “Assoluta” has sort of been laid to rest. Originally designated to Pierina Legnani by Marius Petipa to describe, who he felt, was “The leading dancer in all of Europe”. Although, it was never a refined system and a good chunk of the few designated Primas with the title are disputed/unofficial. Petipa himself formally objected to Kschessinska being awarded the title (one of many petty feuds between the prima and the ballet master. Honestly 1800s Mariinsky troupe drama is so entertaining I could go on all day about it) But it adds a level of prestige, in a world of so many companies both national & regional. It’s certainly a shame that certain dancers never got the honour awarded to them, despite being the greatest heralded (and in demand) dancers of their eras (think Sylvie Guillem, Ulyana Lopatkina, Darcey Bussel). The only still dancing assoluta left is Alessandra Ferri and she is slowly fading out, especially with her new role at the Weiner Staatsoper.
As far as current Primas with the potential for the title, I really think Zakharova could have easily been awarded one by now. It’s a shame that her long-standing controversial political associations have likely hindered any potential for that sort of honour internationally. Just for her sheer presence in the dance world I can’t think of another dancer who holds such a grip on what is considered a “prima”. In talent terms, Osipova should be up there too for her contributions to the world of flying.
Anyway: here’s some photos of the currently recognised Prima Ballerina Assolutas:
Pierina Lagnani - Italian - Mariinsky Ballet
Mathilda Kschessinska - Russian - Mariinsky Ballet
Alicia Markova - British - ENB/ The Royal Ballet
Attilia Redice - Italian - Rome Opera Ballet
Galina Ulanova - Russian - Bolshoi Ballet
Alicia Alonso - Cuban - Cuban National Ballet (Unofficial)
Maya Plisetskaya - Russian - Bolshoi Ballet
Eva Evdokimova - Bulgarian/American - Royal Danish Ballet (also unofficial/sanctioned - appointed by the Mariinsky)
Margot Fonteyn - British - Royal Ballet
Yvette Chauviré - French - Paris Opera Ballet
Anneli Alhanko - Swedish - Royal Swedish Ballet (appointed by the Bolshoi)
Phyllis Spira - South African - Royal Ballet/CAPAB Ballet
Alessandra Ferri - Italian - Royal Ballet/ABT/La Scala
#mariinsky ballet#ballet#bolshoi ballet#classical ballet#paris opera ballet#russian ballet#ballerina#ballet dancer#Ballethistory#mariinsky theatre
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King Carl XVI Gustaf of Sweden, Crown Princess Victoria of Sweden, Princess Estelle of Sweden, Prince Carl Philip of Sweden, Princess Sofia of Sweden, Prince Alexander of Sweden and Prince Gabriel of Sweden watch the Nutcracker ballet performance, at The Royal Swedish Opera in Stockholm, Sweden -December 16th 2023.
📷 : Sören Vilks/Prinsparet.
#king carl gustaf#king carl xvi gustaf#crown princess victoria#princess estelle#prince carl philip#princess sofia#prince alexander#prince gabriel#prince gabriel of sweden#swedish royal family#sweden#2023#december 2023#nutcracker#royal children#my edit
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