The Nutcracker Essay, Research Paper

Sitting through ?The Nutcracker? was definitely one of the most terrible wastes of time I have experienced. It was boring, dull, and yet strangely tedious. As I looked around me I noticed my peers, who shall remain nameless, falling asleep. I too was drowsy although I had a cup of coffee not two hours ago. The music was repetitive and although interesting the first time, by the second act it had become completely monotonous. The fact is that a twenty-minute piece, as good as it is, cannot be used for a full-length ballet. The dancing was not spectacular, maybe decent, at best. The only scene that I really enjoyed, and I believe most others did too, was the man dancing with the Russian motif. His choreography was excellent as well as his moves and acrobatics. He must have gotten about five feet of air on most of the jumps. I was definitely impressed and that is extremely rare. The rest of the dancers were mediocre, but I would never pay money to see them so I do not understand how this ballet is still around. Only act one had a story line as far as I could tell. Without words, though, it was difficult to understand some things, although the gist of it was well conveyed through actions and sounds. I could not understand the rest of the entire story. It appeared to me though, through colors, costumes, and music that the two main characters were being shown around a wonderful place, but for what reason, I could not tell. The costumes were unnecessarily revealing and I was disgusted at some individual scenes that I would not care to retell. It seemed to me that as soon as intermission was over they preformed the same scenes over and over again, but it might have been just my brain dulling from boredom and lack of aesthetic stimulation. And yet as hard as I tried to fall asleep and end the torment it provided, I was constantly being awoken from my dosing by annoying staccatos and accents. The ballet, in its entirety was remarkable, remarkably bad.