THE NUTCRACKER BALLET

Ballet emerged in the Italian Renaissance as a dance interpretation of fencing. It is primarily performed with the accompaniment of classical music and often presenting the dancers in the conventional short white French tutu and flat shoes special for ballet. Along with the times, ballet has several versions and started to become a global dance, even started popping up ballet schools in several countries.
In United States children are usually schooled in ballet class, especially for girls.In there, ballet school is not too expensive and not too cheap, it is in the middle class. But in Indonesia we still rarely see ballet classes, and ballet is considered very exclusive. Initially ballet is a type of dance that only appears in a formal event, and then developed as a dance concert in the French and Russian. Ballet presented in a large room surrounded by audience seated on tiers or in the concert hall. Ballet dance works are choreographed and performed by trained artists. It is a poised style of dance that incorporates the foundational techniques for many other dance forms. This genre of dance is very hard to master and requires much practice. 
On the anniversary of Prof. Dr. C. Soebakdi Soemanto, S. U. on 31 October last in Purna Budaya building, two lecturers of Faculty of Cultural Science, Nicole Laux and Zoe McLaughin, perform The Nutcracker Ballet. They wore long skirts and ballet shoes, and their hair tied up into a small bun. Before the show they do some preparation in the backstage like prayer and doing warm-up. Warm up for ballet usually focus on leg strength, because the typical ballet is to dance on tiptoe while whirling. But it also required suppleness warming to the body, usually for a ballet dancer's flexibility has been formed during the exercise. The dance that lasted more than a minute has managed to amaze the audience. Although they admit that they are not so professional in ballet dancing, but from their performance that night was prove that they could invite the audience amazed and give them big applause.

Maybe for people who never hear about the Nutcracker’s story will not understand what the dance mean. The Nutcracker Ballet has been a festival holiday tradition for many years. Both children and adults look forward to attending a magical performance of The Nutcracker each holiday season, rather on Christmas Eve. In Western country, many local ballet communities take part in the tradition by staging their own productions of The Nutcracker. The Nutcracker Ballet was written during the classical period of ballet, a time when many famous ballets were being written and performed. The Nutcracker is based on the book "The Nutcracker and the Mouse King" by E.T.A. Hoffman. Russian composer Peter Tchaikovsky wrote the music for the ballet.

The dance that present is a dance when the girl Clara and her prince (The Nutcracker) arrive at the Land of the Sweets after they beat the Mouse King and greeted by the Sugar Plum Fairy. The prince tells Clara that he lives in the Land of the Sweets and rules from the Marzipan Castle. Clara and the prince are entertained by several dance performances including the Spanish Dance, the Arabian Dance, the Chinese Dance, and the Waltz of the Flowers. Clara and her Nutcracker Prince then dance together, in honor of their new friends. The dance that performed by Nicole and Zoe is Spanish dance or Chocolate. The whole story of Nutcracker could lasted more than two hours, but for Chocolate dance it could lasted one or two minute.

I think every dance have story or meaning to tell to the audience. But Nicole said that the dance which she and Zoe performed have no significant meaning. That dance, Spanish dance, just as celebration dance. Celebrate because they have beaten the Mouse King. That dance just perform for entertain the audience in that night event. They also said that choreograph is different in every dance, it is depend on who is choreographer and the country style, and also about costume and dancer. Usually it also depends from the ballet school where the performers studied.

“Best regard for Nichole Laux and Zoe McLaughin who has willing to help me in finishing this essay”