Description Tchaikovsky’s The Nutcracker opened in Moscow in 1892. While the full ballet was not performed in North America before 1944, Anna Pavlova—one of the finest ballet dancers in history—performed a dance from The Nutcracker, appearing on the 1924 BAM program as Tchaikovsky’s Christmas Ballet.
Since that auspicious Ballets Russes performance there have been numerous iterations of The Nutcracker at BAM, including a 1953 Salzburg Marionette Theater production, the Bolshoi Ballet in 1990 with the Brooklyn Philharmonic, and American Ballet Theatre’s Nutcracker choreographed by Alexei Ratmansky, which appeared at BAM annually between 2010 and 2015. The Harlem Nutcracker by Donald Byrd/The Group was performed at BAM in 1996 and 1998. Set to music from Duke Ellington, Billy Strayhorn, and David Berger this piece answers the question, “What happens when The Nutcracker goes Uptown?” Beginning in 1992, Mark Morris and the Mark Morris Dance Group launched a Brooklyn holiday tradition with The Hard Nut.
