Michael Arshansky, Paul Nickel, and Alberta Grant in a c.1954 photograph of act 1, scene 1 of George Balanchine's The Nutcracker (1954). (Photograph by Fred'k Melton; from the Dance Division, New York Public Library for the Performing Arts, Astor, Lenox, and Tilden Foundations. Choreography by George Balanchine © The George Balanchine Trust.)

First produced in 1892 at Saint Petersburg's Imperial Ballet with choreography by Lev Ivanov after a choreographic plan by Marius Petipa, The Nutcracker has become a beloved American classic. The ballet was introduced to American audiences in a truncated version by the Ballet Russe de Monte Carlo and in an idiosyncratic one by Willam Christensen for the San Francisco Ballet. However, it was George Balanchine's 1954 production by the New York City Ballet, which featured children from the School of American Ballet and a tree that grew magically up to the flies that transformed the ballet into popular Christmas entertainment. Scores of Nutcrackers are produced each year. Most are community events, presented by local organizations with local children for an audience of parents and friends. For established companies the ballet is a moneymaker that can generate more than fifty percent of annual earned income. In recent decades some choreographers have reworked the story so as to create more satisfying, adult entertainment. The best of these efforts is Mark Morris' The Hard Nut (1991), a hilarious, gender-bending version set in the 1950s.