'Nutcracker: The Exhibition' Adds New Twist to Traditional Holiday Classic
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Upcountry History Museum Greenville, South Carolina
Disney Enterprises, Inc.
The dance of the sugar-plum fairy in "The Nutcracker" never fails to bring audiences that holiday feeling.
In this season of merry making, the ways of celebrating are as many and as varied as possible, but familiar traditions and stories connect us all during this festive time. One such story is “The Nutcracker.”
Whether tradition means seeing the ballet or humming along to its popular songs like “Dance of the Sugar-Plum Fairy” or “March of the Toy Soldiers,” we are all familiar with the story – or are we?
“Nutcracker: The Exhibition,” organized by the Upcountry History Museum, presents a kaleidoscope of artistic reimaginings of this classic tale which originated as a short story by E.T.A. Hoffman in 1816 and was followed by the setting of the story to music as a ballet in 1892 by renowned Russian composer Pyotr Ilyich Tchaikovsky.
This extraordinary holiday exhibition will showcase original costumes from Walt Disney’s 2018 live-action film The Nutcracker and the Four Realms, as well as props, ballet costumes, original illustrations and drawings from partnerships with Walt Disney Archives, The Walt Disney Family Museum, The Charles M. Schulz Museum, acclaimed children’s author/illustrator James Ransome, and Greenville’s own Carolina Ballet Theatre.
In addition, the exhibition will explore the unique connection between Disney’s 1940’s animated classic, Fantasia, and Tchaikovsky’s musical sequence in the ballet’s “Nutcracker Suite” as it presents what animation historian John Canemaker calls “one of the most exquisite examples of Disney fantasy ever created.”
On display through February 19, 2023, "Nutcracker: The Exhibition" takes visitors on a journey of discovery through which they can explore a kaleidoscope of artistic re-imaginings of the classic tale from the early 1800s to the present.
The Upcountry History Museum is open Tuesday through Saturday from 10:00 a.m. until 5:00 p.m.; Sunday from 1:00 – 5:00 p.m. Closed on Monday.