The Nutcracker Divertissement You May Not Have Heard Before

But did you know that Tchaikovsky’s initial handwritten plans included another divertissement, one you may have never heard before? It’s true: Tchaikovsky originally outlined an English “gigue,” or jig.

Pointe spoke with dance historian Doug Fullington to uncover the origins of the mysterious music, and with Houston Ballet artistic director Stanton Welch and Anaheim Ballet artistic directors Sarma Lapenieks Rosenberg and Larry Rosenberg about how they incorporate it into their productions.

The History

Tchaikovsky’s compositions were based on a set of instructions from choreographer Marius Petipa. In his initial plans, Petipa asked for a set of national dances to follow the march in the Act I party scene. According to Roland John Wiley’s book, Tchaikovsky’s Ballets, Petipa’s requests were as follows:

“No. 6. Dances: (1) Chinese Dance—24 b[ars]. (2) Spanish Dance—32 b[ars]. (3) Italian Dance, tarantella—32 b[ars]. (4) English Dance—giga in 2/4, very rapid—48 b[ars]. (5) A jester dances a Russian trepak—from 16 to 24 b[ars]. (6) Coda—French cancan, the last figure a quadrille. Furious galop for the children—48 b[ars].”

“These national dances were short, tiny pieces, kind of like the dolls dances that are there now,” Fullington explains. After meeting with Ivan Vsevolozhsky, the director of the Imperial Theatres and the ballet’s commissioner, Tchaikovsky removed the national dances in favor of the parent and children’s dances we know today.

Since he had already started composing these divertissements, Tchaikovsky decided to repurpose them for Act II. These became the Chinese Tea and Spanish Hot Chocolate variations we know today. The Italian tarantella became the Cavalier’s variation, although the original production included it as a court dance for the Sugar Plum Fairy’s attendants because the cavalier, Pavel Gerdt, had stopped performing solos.

But the English jig didn’t make the cut. “This English dance only exists in a sketch,” Fullington says. “It wasn’t reused. So all we have is that piano score.” Many decades later, composer and conductor John Lanchbery, who served as music director for The Royal Ballet, The Australian Ballet, and American Ballet Theatre during his career, created a full orchestration of the English jig. The music was included in The Royal Ballet’s 1968 production and was recorded in 1982.

“Lanchbery had a big career in arranging older scores,” Fullington says. For the English jig, “he followed what was there and had to decide which instruments would play it. If you compare it to the Russian dance, which is also big and fast, it sounds about right.”

Usage Today

Some ballet companies have incorporated this rediscovered music into their productions. At Houston Ballet, artistic director and choreographer Stanton Welch has an English bulldog introduce the divertissement, which is danced by a band of sailors. “You get to play a little with The Nutcracker,” Welch says. “I was lucky enough to work with John Lanchbery, and he always talked about this piece of music. When I was young and dreaming about getting to do a Nutcracker, it was something I very much wanted to include.”

Welch describes his choreography as “bright,” with a lot of energy and turns. “It’s barely a minute long, but it really brings down the house.”

At Anaheim Ballet, choreographer and co-director Sarma Lapenieks Rosenberg heard a galloping horse in the rhythm of the music and imagined the lead dancer as a jockey, with two lady suitors. “There’s this feeling of racing, one horse surging ahead as another lags,” Lapenieks Rosenberg says. The movement includes stylized pas de basques and leaps meant to evoke jumping over hurdles.

She and co-director Larry Rosenberg say they try to keep their Nutcracker fresh by changing it slightly each year, and that including the English divertissement was one such change that has stood the test of time.

“Our cast loves it too,” Rosenberg says. “A lot of them have been in plenty of Nutcrackers, and it’s a thrill for them to have the variety.”

Both Houston Ballet and Anaheim Ballet connect the English music with toffee as its corresponding sweet. But Fullington says that since the music was never moved to Act II by Tchaikovsky, it was never linked to a sweet and the association likely came in the 20th century. Houston Ballet fits the English-toffee divertissement between those for Danish Copenhagen-chiffon almonds (the marzipan/mirlitons music) and French bon bons. Anaheim Ballet sandwiches it between Arabian Coffee and Chinese Tea.

“It’s exciting to hear it and ask, ‘What might Tchaikovsky have done?’ ” Fullington says. “It’s unique, and it gives choreographers something fresh to add if they want to.”