53-424: Ruth Page is the name of: Ruth Page (ballerina) (1899–1991), American ballerina and choreographer Ruth Page (activist) (1905–1992), political activist Ruth Page (theologian) (1935–2015), theologian and first female principal of New College, Edinburgh [REDACTED] Topics referred to by the same term This disambiguation page lists articles about people with
106-540: A string of beautiful flowers perform a waltz. To conclude the night, the Sugar Plum Fairy and her Cavalier perform a dance. A final waltz is performed by all the sweets, after which the Sugar Plum Fairy ushers Clara and the Prince down from their throne. He bows to her, she kisses Clara goodbye, and leads them to a reindeer-drawn sleigh. It takes off as they wave goodbye to all the subjects who wave back. In
159-404: A vehicle that gave voice to her subjectivity as a woman and to subvert the stereotypes that were pervasive in the male dominated world of ballet. Among hundreds of dance works to her credit are landmark Americana ballets, dances with words and music, and her innovative opera-into-ballets. Page's practice of turning operas into ballets was rooted in a synthetic conception of relationships between
212-465: Is her doll's name. In the adaptation by Dumas on which Petipa based his libretto, her name is Marie Silberhaus. In still other productions, such as Balanchine's, Clara is Marie Stahlbaum rather than Clara Silberhaus. Scene 1: The Stahlbaum Home In Nuremberg, Germany on Christmas Eve in the 1820s, a family and their friends gather in the parlor to decorate the Christmas tree in preparation for
265-828: Is now in its 16th season and was founded in 1998 by Larry and Dolores Long, the original directors of the Ruth Page School of Dance. Serving as a bridge between ballet training and professional performance, the Ruth Page Civic Ballet provides performance opportunities for advanced dance students from the School as a means of continuing their training. Members of the company will train in this program before moving on to national and international professional dance companies. The Civic's dancers are joined in performances by notable guest artists and choreographers, expanding their sphere of professional work. Central to
318-691: Is the subject of two award-winning documentaries: Ruth Page: An American Original (Otter Productions) and Ruth Page: Once Upon a Dancer (Thea Flaum Productions). The Ruth Page legacy lives on in several major archives including the Dance Division at Lincoln Center, the Ann Barzel Dance Collection at the Newberry Library and the Chicago Film Archives. On retiring from active choreography, Page created
371-400: Is transformed into a human prince. He leads Clara through the moonlit night to a pine forest in which the snowflakes dance around them, beckoning them on to his kingdom as the first act ends. The Land of Sweets Clara and the Prince travel to the beautiful Land of Sweets, ruled by the Sugar Plum Fairy in the Prince's place until his return. He recounts for her how he had been saved from
424-567: Is written for an orchestra with the following instrumentation. Woodwinds Brass Percussion Keyboard Voice Strings Titles of all of the numbers listed here come from Marius Petipa's original scenario as well as the original libretto and programs of the first production of 1892. All libretti and programs of works performed on the stages of the Imperial Theatres were titled in French, which
477-566: The Christmas season . ) Tchaikovsky is said to have argued with a friend who wagered that the composer could not write a melody based on a one-octave scale in sequence. Tchaikovsky asked if it mattered whether the notes were in ascending or descending order and was assured it did not. This resulted in the Adagio from the Grand pas de deux , which, in the ballet, nearly always immediately follows
530-1404: The Ed Sullivan Show . In the 1960s her choreographic artistry was frequently showcased on live network television for the CBS Repertoire Workshop . Her contributions included a televised adaptation for the ballet of Georges Bizet 's opera Carmen . Her talents as a choreographer created numerous ballets set to the music of many operatic and classical composers including: Ludwig van Beethoven ( Sonata Pathetique ), Hector Berlioz ( La Damnation de Faust ), Georges Bizet ( Carmen ), Alexander Borodin ( Prince Igor ), Francesco Cilea ( Adriana Lecouvreur ), Gaetano Donizetti ( La Favorite ), Manuel de Falla ( El Amor Brujo ), George Gershwin ( An American in Paris ), Franz Lehar ( The Merry Widow ), Jules Massenet ( Thais ), Carl Orff ( Carmina Burana ), Amilcare Ponchielli ( La Gioconda ), Maurice Ravel ( Boléro ), Johann Strauss II ( Die Fledermaus ), Richard Strauss ( Salome ), Franz von Suppé ( The Beautiful Galatea ), Pyotr Ilyich Tchaikovsky ( Romeo and Juliet , The Nutcracker ), Ambroise Thomas ( Mignon ), and Giuseppe Verdi ( Aida , La Forza del Destino , Il Trovatore , La Traviata ). She
583-653: The Imperial Mariinsky Theatre in Saint Petersburg, Russia. Although the libretto was by Marius Petipa , who exactly choreographed the first production has been debated. Petipa began work on the choreography in August 1892; however, illness removed him from its completion and his assistant of seven years, Lev Ivanov , was brought in. Although Ivanov is often credited as the choreographer, some contemporary accounts credit Petipa. The performance
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#1732780429746636-644: The Royal Ballet and the Birmingham Royal Ballet . In recent years, revisionist productions, including those by Mark Morris , Matthew Bourne , and Mikhail Chemiakin have appeared; these depart radically from both the original 1892 libretto and Vainonen's revival, while Maurice Béjart 's version completely discards the original plot and characters. In addition to annual live stagings of the work, many productions have also been televised or released on home video. The following extrapolation of
689-531: The "Waltz of the Flowers". A story is also told that Tchaikovsky's sister Alexandra (9 January 1842 — 9 April 1891 ) had died shortly before he began composition of the ballet and that his sister's death influenced him to compose a melancholy, descending scale melody for the adagio of the Grand Pas de Deux. However, it is more naturally perceived as a dreams-come-true theme because of another celebrated scale use,
742-456: The Arts staff. Recipients: The Nutcracker The Nutcracker ( Russian : Щелкунчик , romanized : Shchelkunchik , pronounced [ɕːɪɫˈkunʲt͡ɕɪk] ), Op. 71, is an 1892 two-act classical ballet (conceived as a ballet-féerie ; Russian: балет-феерия , romanized: balet-feyeriya ) by Pyotr Ilyich Tchaikovsky , set on Christmas Eve at
795-511: The Christensen-founded Ballet West . The New York City Ballet gave its first annual performance of George Balanchine 's reworked staging of The Nutcracker in 1954. The performance of Maria Tallchief in the role of the Sugar Plum Fairy helped elevate the work from obscurity into an annual Christmas classic and the industry's most reliable box-office draw. Critic Walter Terry remarked that "Maria Tallchief, as
848-783: The Civic's performance schedule since 2003 is the annual presentation of The Nutcracker . Originally presented in the Arie Crown Theatre from 1965 to 1997, the Ruth Page Civic Ballet performances recreates Ruth Page's beloved original full-length staging. Exquisite dancing, stunning costumes and magical settings in the Land of Snow and the Kingdom of the Sweets, "The Nutcracker" promises world-class entertainment and holiday joy for children of all ages. The Ruth Page Award has been given by
901-844: The Infanta in 1919. She danced ceaselessly for the next forty years, with Adolph Bolm ’s Ballet Intime, on Broadway in Irving Berlin ’s Music Box Revue , with the Chicago Allied Arts, Sergei Diaghilev ’s Ballets Russes, the Metropolitan, Ravinia, and Chicago Operas, the Ballet Russe de Monte Carlo, Les Ballets Americains, choreographed for all but one of those companies, choreographed the 1947 Broadway show Music in My Heart , and served as director/choreographer for
954-619: The Mouse King ", by Alexandre Dumas called "The Story of a Nutcracker". The plot of Hoffmann's story (and Dumas' adaptation) was greatly simplified for the two-act ballet. Hoffmann's tale contains a long flashback story within its main plot titled "The Tale of the Hard Nut", which explains how the Prince was turned into the Nutcracker. This had to be excised for the ballet. Petipa gave Tchaikovsky extremely detailed instructions for
1007-485: The Mouse King by Clara and transformed back into himself. In honor of the young heroine, a celebration of sweets from around the world is produced: chocolate from Spain, coffee from Arabia, tea from China, and candy canes from Russia all dance for their amusement; Marzipan shepherdesses perform on their flutes; Mother Ginger has her children, the Polichinelles , emerge from under her enormous hoop skirt to dance;
1060-673: The Ruth Page Center for the Arts on behalf of the Ruth Page Foundation since 1986. The award acknowledges, or helps further, an individual's or organization's artistic momentum, and recognizes artistic excellence in the field of dance. The honoree is selected through the Selection Committee, composed of members from the Chicago dance community, former Ruth Page Award winners and Ruth Page Center for
1113-556: The Ruth Page Foundation, which established the Ruth Page Foundation School of Dance, as it was originally known, and which later became the Ruth Page Center for the Arts, as it is known now. She is interred at Graceland Cemetery in Chicago, about 5 feet from Cubs legend Ernie Banks. The Ruth Page Civic Ballet is the official youth training performance company of the Ruth Page School of Dance and one of its Artists In-Residence. The company of talented young dancers
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#17327804297461166-537: The Sugar Plum Fairy, and Jocelyn Vollmar as the Snow Queen. After the enormous success of this production, San Francisco Ballet has presented Nutcracker every Christmas Eve and throughout the winter season, debuting new productions in 1944, 1954, 1967, and 2004. The original Christensen version continues in Salt Lake City , where Christensen relocated in 1948. It has been performed every year since 1963 by
1219-527: The Sugar Plum Fairy, is herself a creature of magic, dancing the seemingly impossible with effortless beauty of movement, electrifying us with her brilliance, enchanting us with her radiance of being. Does she have any equals anywhere, inside or outside of fairyland? While watching her in The Nutcracker, one is tempted to doubt it." Since Gorsky, Vainonen and Balanchine's productions, many other choreographers have made their own versions. Some institute
1272-587: The United States including Chicago, Milwaukee, Cincinnati, Pittsburgh, New York, and the Dance Theater of Harlem, as well as in Europe. Ruth filmed her ballets throughout her career and several, including Frankie & Johnny, The Merry Widow, and Billy Sunday were made into award-winning television films. As early as 1958, members of her Chicago Opera ballet troupe were also featured in performance on
1325-653: The arts: the body 'sang' the voice, although the translation from words to movement remained abstract and avoided a literal depiction of the text. In 1965, she choreographed a large-scale production of The Nutcracker , which was presented annually through 1997 by the Chicago Tribune Charities in the Arie Crown Theatre and featured some of the world's great dancers as guest artists. She danced with great partners Bentley Stone, Walter Camryn, and Harald Kreutzberg , and worked with several of
1378-536: The ascending one in the Barcarolle from The Seasons . Tchaikovsky was less satisfied with The Nutcracker than with The Sleeping Beauty . (In the film Fantasia , commentator Deems Taylor observes that he "really detested" the score.) Tchaikovsky accepted the commission from Vsevolozhsky but did not particularly want to write the ballet (though he did write to a friend while composing it, "I am daily becoming more and more attuned to my task"). The music
1431-544: The ballerina did not dance until the Grand Pas de Deux near the end of the second act (which did not occur until nearly midnight during the program). Some found the transition between the mundane world of the first scene and the fantasy world of the second act too abrupt. Reception was better for Tchaikovsky's score. Some critics called it "astonishingly rich in detailed inspiration" and "from beginning to end, beautiful, melodious, original, and characteristic". But this also
1484-622: The ballet have been staged there since 1952. Another abridged version of the ballet, performed by the Ballet Russe de Monte Carlo , was staged in New York City in 1940, Alexandra Fedorova – again, after Petipa's version. The ballet's first complete United States performance was on 24 December 1944 by the San Francisco Ballet , staged by its artistic director, Willam Christensen , and starring Gisella Caccialanza as
1537-417: The ballet. Its score has been used in several film adaptations of Hoffmann's story. Tchaikovsky's score has become one of his most famous compositions. Among other things, the score is noted for its use of the celesta , an instrument the composer had already employed in his much lesser known symphonic ballad The Voyevoda (1891). After the success of The Sleeping Beauty in 1890, Ivan Vsevolozhsky ,
1590-591: The changes made by Gorsky and Vainonen while others, like Balanchine, utilize the original libretto. Some notable productions include Rudolf Nureyev 's 1963 production for the Royal Ballet , Yury Grigorovich for the Bolshoi Ballet , Mikhail Baryshnikov for the American Ballet Theatre , Fernand Nault for Les Grands Ballets Canadiens starting in 1964, Kent Stowell for Pacific Northwest Ballet starting in 1983, and Peter Wright for
1643-405: The characters (in order of appearance) is drawn from an examination of the stage directions in the score. Below is a synopsis based on the original 1892 libretto by Marius Petipa. The story varies from production to production, though most follow the basic outline. The names of the characters also vary. In the original Hoffmann story, the young heroine is called Marie Stahlbaum and Clara (Klärchen)
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1696-460: The choreography of the battle scene as confusing: "One can not understand anything. Disorderly pushing about from corner to corner and running backwards and forwards – quite amateurish." The libretto was criticized as "lopsided" and for not being faithful to the Hoffmann tale. Much of the criticism focused on the featuring of children so prominently in the ballet, and many bemoaned the fact that
1749-483: The complete and staged The Nutcracker ballet was not initially as successful as the 20-minute Nutcracker Suite that Tchaikovsky had premiered nine months earlier, it became popular in later years. Since the late 1960s, The Nutcracker has been danced by many ballet companies, especially in North America. Major American ballet companies generate around 40% of their annual ticket revenues from performances of
1802-553: The composition of each number, down to the tempo and number of bars. The completion of the work was interrupted for a short time when Tchaikovsky visited the United States for twenty-five days to conduct concerts for the opening of Carnegie Hall . Tchaikovsky composed parts of The Nutcracker in Rouen , France. The first performance of the ballet was held as a double premiere together with Tchaikovsky's last opera, Iolanta , on 18 December [ O.S. 6 December] 1892, at
1855-648: The concert stage, and was excerpted in Disney 's Fantasia , omitting the two movements prior to the Dance of the Sugar Plum Fairy. The outline below represents the selection and sequence of the Nutcracker Suite made by the composer: The Paraphrase on Tchaikovsky's Flower Waltz is a successful piano arrangement from one of the movements from The Nutcracker by the pianist and composer Percy Grainger . The pianist and conductor Mikhail Pletnev adapted some of
1908-415: The delight of all. He then has them put away for safekeeping. Clara and her brother Fritz are sad to see the dolls being taken away, but Drosselmeyer has yet another toy for them: a wooden nutcracker doll , which the other children ignore. Clara immediately takes a liking to it, but Fritz accidentally breaks it. Clara is heartbroken, but Drosselmeyer fixes the nutcracker, much to everyone's relief. During
1961-406: The director of the Imperial Theatres, commissioned Tchaikovsky to compose a double-bill program featuring both an opera and a ballet. The opera would be Iolanta . For the ballet, Tchaikovsky would again join forces with Marius Petipa, with whom he had collaborated on The Sleeping Beauty. The material Vsevolozhsky chose was an adaptation of E. T. A. Hoffmann 's story " The Nutcracker and
2014-415: The foot of a Christmas tree in a child's imagination. The plot is an adaptation of Alexandre Dumas' 1844 short story The Nutcracker , itself a retelling of E. T. A. Hoffmann 's 1816 short story The Nutcracker and the Mouse King . The ballet's first choreographer was Marius Petipa , with whom Tchaikovsky had worked three years earlier on The Sleeping Beauty , assisted by Lev Ivanov . Although
2067-466: The greatest composers and designers of the 20th century, including Aaron Copland , Darius Milhaud , Jerome Moross , Isamu Noguchi , Antoni Clave , Georges Wakhevitch , Louis Horst , Marcel Delannoy , Pavel Tchelitchew , Nicholas Remisoff, and Andre Delfau. Rudolf Nureyev selected Page's Chicago Opera Ballet troupe for his New York City debut in 1962 with Sonia Arova . Her ballets have been revived and performed by ballet companies throughout
2120-409: The mice, led by their king. The nutcracker appears to lead the gingerbread men, who are joined by tin soldiers, and by dolls who serve as doctors to carry away the wounded. As the seven-headed Mouse King advances on the still-wounded nutcracker, Clara throws her slipper at him, distracting him long enough for the nutcracker to stab him. Scene 2: A Pine Forest The mice retreat and the nutcracker
2173-440: The night, after everyone else has gone to bed, Clara returns to the parlor to check on the nutcracker. As she reaches the small bed, the clock strikes midnight and she looks up to see Drosselmeyer perched atop it. Suddenly, mice begin to fill the room and the Christmas tree begins to grow to dizzying heights. The nutcracker also grows to life size. Clara finds herself in the midst of a battle between an army of gingerbread soldiers and
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2226-626: The original libretto, the ballet's apotheosis "represents a large beehive with flying bees, closely guarding their riches". Just like Swan Lake , there have been various alternative endings created in productions subsequent to the original. The Nutcracker is one of the composer's most popular compositions. The music belongs to the Romantic period and contains some of his most memorable melodies, several of which are frequently used in television and film. (They are often heard in TV commercials shown during
2279-410: The party. Once the tree is finished, the children are summoned. When the party begins, presents are given out to the children. When the owl-topped grandfather clock strikes eight, a mysterious figure enters the room. It is Drosselmeyer— a councilman, magician, and Clara's godfather. He is also a talented toymaker who has brought with him gifts for the children, including four lifelike dolls who dance to
2332-568: The piano reduction score by Sergei Taneyev (1892), both published by P. Jurgenson in Moscow, and the Soviet collected edition of the composer's works, as reprinted Melville, New York: Belwin Mills [n.d.] Tchaikovsky made a selection of eight of the numbers from the ballet before the ballet's December 1892 première, forming The Nutcracker Suite , Op. 71a, intended for concert performance. The suite
2385-523: The same name. If an internal link led you here, you may wish to change the link to point directly to the intended article. Retrieved from " https://en.wikipedia.org/w/index.php?title=Ruth_Page&oldid=831104167 " Category : Human name disambiguation pages Hidden categories: Short description is different from Wikidata All article disambiguation pages All disambiguation pages Ruth Page (ballerina) Ruth Page (March 22, 1899 – April 7, 1991)
2438-476: The various manifestations of her own Chicago-based companies well into the 1970s. In 1937 she created An American Pattern (originally titled An American Woman ) that is widely recognized as the first feminist ballet created in the United States. The period between 1943-1946 she experimented with "danced poems" that combined her interest in poetry and movement and resulted in a work she titled Dances with Words and Music . These innovative performances provided her
2491-924: Was an American ballerina and choreographer , who created innovative works on American themes. Page was married to attorney Thomas Hart Fisher from 1925 to 1969, and to artist Andre Delfau from 1983 until her death in 1991. She is buried in Graceland Cemetery in Chicago. Page's brother, Irvine H. Page , was a noted physician and scientist. Born in Indianapolis in 1899, Ruth Page undertook professional studies with Jan Zalewski, Adolph Bolm , Enrico Cecchetti , Harald Kreutzberg and Mary Wigman . She made her professional debut on Broadway in 1917, then with Anna Pavlova ’s Company on its tour of South America in 1918, and at Chicago's Auditorium Theater in John Alden Carpenter ’s The Birthday of
2544-668: Was conducted by Italian composer Riccardo Drigo , with Antonietta Dell'Era as the Sugar Plum Fairy, Pavel Gerdt as Prince Coqueluche, Stanislava Belinskaya as Clara, Sergei Legat as the Nutcracker-Prince, and Timofey Stukolkin as Drosselmeyer. Unlike in many later productions, the children's roles were performed by real children – students of the Imperial Ballet School in Saint Petersburg , with Belinskaya as Clara, and Vassily Stukolkin as Fritz – rather than adults. The first performance of The Nutcracker
2597-669: Was first performed outside Russia in Budapest (Royal Opera House) in 1927, with choreography by Ede Brada. In 1934, choreographer Vasili Vainonen staged a version of the work that addressed many of the criticisms of the original 1892 production by casting adult dancers in the roles of Clara and the Prince, as Gorsky had. The Vainonen version influenced several later productions. The first complete performance outside Russia took place in England in 1934, staged by Nicholas Sergeyev after Petipa's original choreography. Annual performances of
2650-603: Was first performed, under the composer's direction, on 19 March 1892 at an assembly of the Saint Petersburg branch of the Musical Society. The suite became instantly popular, with almost every number encored at its premiere, while the complete ballet did not begin to achieve its great popularity until after the George Balanchine staging became a hit in New York City. The suite became very popular on
2703-475: Was not deemed a success. The reaction to the dancers themselves was ambivalent. Although some critics praised Dell'Era on her pointework as the Sugar Plum Fairy (she allegedly received five curtain-calls), one critic called her "corpulent" and "podgy". Olga Preobrajenskaya as the Columbine doll was panned by one critic as "completely insipid" and praised as "charming" by another. Alexandre Benois described
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#17327804297462756-530: Was not unanimous, as some critics found the party scene "ponderous" and the Grand Pas de Deux "insipid". In 1919, choreographer Alexander Gorsky staged a production which eliminated the Sugar Plum Fairy and her Cavalier and gave their dances to Clara and the Nutcracker Prince, who were played by adults instead of children. This was the first production to do so. An abridged version of the ballet
2809-487: Was the official language of the Imperial Court, as well as the language from which balletic terminology is derived. Casse-Noisette . Ballet-féerie in two acts and three tableaux with apotheosis. Act I Act II List of acts, scenes (tableaux) and musical numbers, along with tempo indications . Numbers are given according to the original Russian and French titles of the first edition score (1892),
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