Alastair Macaulay’s A-G of Nutcracker rules!

If you are a ballet lover, use Twitter and don’t yet follow the New York Times’s Alastair Macaulay, you really should. His timeline is a witty mix of ballet facts and observations, and world views and opinions.

He has probably seen more productions of The Nutcracker than any other living soul, so who better to provide the ‘rules’ for a traditional Nutcracker.

He kicks off with,

Basic rule for traditional “Nutcrackers”: A: Drosselmeyer should only be seen in Act I, Sugar Plum only Act II

which instantly puts a large number of Nutcracker productions into the non-traditional category. Here are his other rules:

https://twitter.com/AMacaulayNYT/status/804672294119411712

https://twitter.com/AMacaulayNYT/status/804672571958509568

https://twitter.com/AMacaulayNYT/status/804673051979870209

https://twitter.com/AMacaulayNYT/status/804673455039905792

https://twitter.com/AMacaulayNYT/status/804673943172943872

He warns,

Don’t tell Trump or UKIP the “Nutcracker” basic rule G, which is….

https://twitter.com/AMacaulayNYT/status/804675842353852416

Macaulay concludes by tweeting,

Balanchine alone observes “Nutcracker” rule F. But rules A-E and G are widespread across the USA. They make “Nutcracker” large-spirited.

“Large-spirited”… yes!

Gramilano Editor

Graham Spicer, aka ‘Gramilano’, is a writer, director and photographer based in Milan. He was a regular columnist for Opera Now magazine and wrote for the BBC until transferring to Italy. His articles have appeared in various publications from Woman’s Weekly to Gay Times, and he wrote the Danza in Italia column for Dancing Times magazine. Graham was the historical advisor on Codice Carla, the 2023 documentary on Carla Fracci.

Graham also works as a dance photographer, and his photos have appeared in many books, theatre programmes, and magazines, including Dancing Times, Dance Spirit and Ballet2000, as well as all the major Italian newspapers.

He is a member of the Dance Section of The Critics’ Circle.