The State Ballet of Berlin has abandoned the production of The Nutcracker by Russian choreographers due to racial stereotypes and outdated choreography, the acting head of the troupe Christiane Theobald told Bild..

Instead of the expensive (€ 1.5 million) staging of Tchaikovsky's classics, the directors added to the repertoire of Don Quixote by Ludwig Minkus.

The head of the troupe recalled that the play " However, some of the elements that were acceptable at the time raise many questions in the modern world and need to be revised..

“We see what the choreographer Marius Petipa imagined then, even when today's ensemble is dancing. In connection with the ongoing debate about what repertoire is still acceptable in postcolonial times, we must ask ourselves if elements from that period are acceptable now.. We need to re-contextualize the Nutcracker. We must reconsider the repertoire, ”said Christiane Theobald.

The directors said about the exit in the second act of children with faces painted with dark paint. Christiane Theobald emphasized that the use of the blackface technique (blackface, considered a caricature of black people by applying makeup on the face) led to complaints from the audience back in 2015, and it should be abandoned in a modern production. According to her, the choreographers of The Nutcracker Vasily Medvedev and Yuri Burlaka hardly agreed to such a step, since it means a departure from the original concept..

To this, Theobald said that such a discrepancy with the original may not bother the audience, but from a cultural and historical point of view, it matters.

“We must reevaluate everything. Chinese dance shows stereotypes with small triple steps. This was not criticized during the creation of the choreography.. But today we have to explain it. An oriental dance with girls from a harem and a soloist with dark make-up are also things that today cannot be staged without discussion, "

According to Theobald, "