In Topeka, Kansas, we join in the Topeka Performing Arts Center (T-PAC) annually to watch a group of talented ballerinas dance out an intricate Russian ballet- The Nutcracker. The Nutcracker is a Christmas motif in many Western households, and has its deep roots in 1890’s Germany, where the book, “The Nutcracker and the King of Mice” was first written by Ernst Theodor Amadeus Hoffman. By 1892, the book was adopted by the Russian composer Pyotr Ilyich Tchaikovsky, who wrote it into a ballet. Eventually, the ballet and story of the Nutcracker made its way to the West in the 1940’s, and since then it has been a key feature in celebrating the national holiday. 

This year, the play was put on by the Kansas Ballet Company, a non-profit organization who, “raise funds in support of classical ballet programming,” according to their website. In this version of The Nutcracker the story follows a girl named Clara, played by Nardia Boodoo, who is gifted a Nutcracker by her grandfather- but soon after her brother breaks the toy. Upset and troubled by this, she visits her toy in the middle of the night, where it comes to life and- much like the original book- begins to fight an onslaught of tiny children dressed up as mice. The Topeka Symphony Orchestra had a wonderful performance throughout the play- and the dancers, although young, were incredibly gifted. However, this play does not come without its obstacles. 

By the time you find a seat in the crowded auditorium and get comfortable shoulder-to-shoulder with your newfound friend- whoever has the misfortune of sitting right beside you- you can enjoy the experience of the Christmas classic. But before you can do that, you must get into the Topeka Performing Arts Center, a difficulty if you are disabled and require a ramp. There is only one entrance that is wheel-chair accessible, and if you want the good parking, it is on the farthest side of the building. The only exits of the theater without stairs are steep-upwards inclines and, for people in wheelchairs or with a walking staff, are equally as difficult to navigate. After getting in the theater, there is an added incline that makes it impossible to roll up and impossible to roll down when trying to find a seat. Needless to say, any person in a wheelchair or someone who has difficulty walking must get there incredibly early to get a seat in the front, where they do not have to worry about the steep inclines. Thankfully T-PAC has accessible seats throughout the theater, and offers wheelchair escorts. Nonetheless, these challenges are hard to ignore and merely mitigated by the aid from T-PAC.

Enjoying the performance is another thing: if you aren’t fluent in the words of ballet, you just won’t get it. A common mistake made by many Topekans- especially parents with young children- is that The Nutcracker is a child-friendly play. While yes, there is no profanity or violence, the ballet has no words and lasts for 2 hours. Not only is it boring to sit through the first 30 minutes, the lack of dialogue makes the ballet hard to follow. For kids, this isn’t a problem once the well known characters like the Nutcracker soldier, or the Mice King show up, but before that, and in between the key plot points, there is nothing for a child to look at other than the pretty dancers on stage. The same can be said for an adult, if you have no knowledge of dancing or know the plot of The Nutcracker before going into the performance, it feels like an empty 2 hours filled by a pit-orchestra. Granted, if you have interest in the theater and music, or if you did dance when you were 4 years old, you might be the right target audience- but this hyper-specific demographic, compounded by the marketing towards children, is misleading and makes the experience disappointing for kids and troubling for the parents- who just wasted over 100 dollars for four-to-five tickets.

Finally, the play itself has some troubling aspects. In the ballet adaptation of the book, we get additions of characters called Arabic, Spanish, Chinese, and Russian. Usually a duo or small group of children are dressed up in stereotypical Arabic, Spanish, Chinese, or Russian clothing and parade around the main character, Clara. It would be a generous offer to have cultures represented in the play, but all of these ethnicities are played by a majority of white children. A small fix to the characters would be all it takes to get rid of this semi-racism. Instead of doing ethnicities, have a small group of children play gingerbread men, candy canes, or elves. Because the only identifier of these ethnicities is their name in the script and their costumes, making these changes would not require new dances that would take away from the original ballet, nor would it be expensive.

With all that being said, going to The Nutcracker is a good experience if you are willing to risk not understanding ballet, the inaccessible entrances and exits, and the slight stereotyping of ethnicities. But for an average high school student, or for someone with children, this play is overpriced and impractical and preaches stereotypes of ethnicities that a child should not be subjected to watch or play as.