Who's Who

Photo © Tanaquil LeClercq. BALANCINE is a trademark of the George Balanchine Trust.

Peter Ilyitch Tschaikovsky is the composer who wrote the music for the ballet.
He lived from 1840 to 1893. Tschaikovsky was Russian and studied music at the conservatory in St. Petersburg. He composed many different types of music, including ballets, symphonies, operas, chamber music, concerti, and works for the piano.

Besides The Nutcracker, he also wrote the music for the ballets Swan Lake and The Sleeping Beauty. Many choreographers, including George Balanchine, have made ballets to Tschaikovsky’s concert music that was not written specifically for dancing.

George Balanchine is the choreographer who created the dancing for the ballet.
He lived from 1904 to 1983. Balanchine grew up in Russia, studying dance at the Russian Imperial Ballet School and music at the conservatory in St. Petersburg. He danced and choreographed in Europe before Lincoln Kirstein invited him to move to America.

In 1934, Balanchine and Kirstein founded the School of American Ballet in New York City. They also started several short-lived ballet companies before establishing New York City Ballet in 1948. Balanchine choreographed many different types of ballets throughout his career, including traditional story ballets such as The Nutcracker, classical ballets without stories like Symphony in C, and more modern ballets like The Four Temperaments and Agon. He also choreographed for Broadway and Hollywood musicals. He is well known for creating ballets performed in simple practice clothing without elaborate scenery, where the focus is just on the music and the dancing.

Barbara Karinska is the costume designer who created the costumes for the ballet.
She lived from 1888 until 1983. She was trained in embroidery in Russia, and worked in Paris and London before moving to New York in 1939. Throughout her career, she designed and constructed costumes for dance, film, and Broadway musicals. She won an Academy Award for her work in Hollywood.

She first worked with George Balanchine in 1932 in Europe, and collaborated with him in New York from 1946 until the end of her life. Karinska’s costume shop only made costumes for New York City Ballet after 1964. Besides George Balanchine’s The Nutcracker™, she is well known for her costume designs for Balanchine’s Vienna Waltzes, Jewels, and Western Symphony, among many others.

Rouben Ter-Arutunian is the scenic designer who created the scenery for the ballet.
He lived from 1920 until 1992. Ter-Arutunian was Armenian and studied and worked in Berlin, Vienna, and Paris. He moved to the United States in 1951. He was a stage designer for opera, television, plays, and Broadway musicals, as well as ballets. He worked with many different choreographers and is especially well known for his collaborations with George Balanchine on ballets including Harlequinade, Vienna Waltzes, and The Nutcracker.