The Nutcracker is a two-act ballet, originally choreographed by Marius Petipa and Lev Ivanov with a score by Pyotr Llyich Tchaikovsky. The libretto is adapted from E.T.A. Hoffmann's story The Nutcracker and the Mouse King. It was given its première at the Mariinsky Theatre in St. Petersburg on Sunday, December 18, 1892, on a double-bill with Tchaikovsky's opera, Iolanta.

 

Russian National Ballet Theatre
The Russian National Ballet Theatre was founded with support of the Ministry of Culture of the Russian Federation. The basic principle of the theatre is to preserve the creative heritage of Russian ballet and to search for new forms in choreography. Its repertoire includes not only classical performances such as Swan Lake, The Nutcracker and Sleeping Beauty, but also modern ballets set to the music of Mozart, Bach, and Ravel. In 2001, Evgeny Amosov became the Artistic Director of the theatre. He was graduated from the Perm Academy of choreography and then joined the Ekaterinburg Academic Theatre of Opera and Ballet as a principal dancer. He is also a prize-winner of Russian and International choreography contests of ballet-masters and ballet dancers.