After the Show

How do you think a story can be told onstage in a ballet without using any words?

Discuss the elements of dance (body shapes, levels, patterns, tempo, rhythm, energy), music, mime, costumes, scenery, and lighting, and how they all work together to create a story onstage.

Have you ever expressed something to someone without using words?

Discuss how people frequently use gestures, facial expressions, and movement to express themselves without words (waving hello or goodbye, nodding yes and no, stamping in anger, jumping for joy); these actions are related to the mime and acting they will see on stage.

What are some different ways the dancers moved and used the space of the stage?

• Energy: Movements can be smooth, sharp, fluid, or syncopated.
• Body Shapes: Dancers can make round or angular shapes and poses with their bodies.
• Levels: Dancers can move low to the ground and other times they can jump or be lifted high in the air.
• Patterns: Dancers can make patterns individually by moving in different directions around the stage (think of the way you can trace ice skaters’ movement patterns by the lines their skates leave on the ice) and they can make patterns with each other when dancing in groups (circles; diamonds; pinwheels; straight lines).
• Tempo: Dancers can move quickly, very slowly, or at a speed in-between.
• Rhythm: Dancers can move to certain patterns of sound such as a waltz (in three’s) or a march (in two’s).

What would happen if the ballet production of The Nutcracker were to be set in a different time period and a different location? Would the ballet look different? Would the characters behave differently?