# The Hip Hop Nutcracker



## Radames

Has anyone seen it? If so what do you think? I am thinking of seeing it next week in CT. Or I could see the traditional one in Boston.


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## mbhaub

The Hip Hop Nutcracker? I can only imagine the horrors inflicted on that great score. It's like the Ellington jazz Nutcracker arrangements: they're just wrong, wrong, wrong. It's like a modern artist touching up the Mona Lisa because they think they have better ideas. Or remaking classic movies to fit some woke agenda. Nope...leave the Nutcracker as is in all its 19th c innocence and grandeur. Write your own ballet, if you think your good enough is what I say to those destroyers. Go traditional.


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## SanAntone

I'm for anything that alters this hyperglycemic work beyond recognition. 

The Ellington work, although not among his best work - hampered as he was by the material he had to work with - it is an improvement over Tchaikovsky. From what I can tell from the trailer, The Hip Hop Nutcracker uses Hip-Hop dancers instead of ballet dancers, but the music is the same.


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## Rogerx

Radames said:


> Has anyone seen it? If so what do you think? I am thinking of seeing it next week in CT. Or I could see the traditional one in Boston.


Although I can sympathize with the statement from SanAntone, I would go safe and take the classic one.


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## BachIsBest

SanAntone said:


> I'm for anything that alters this hyperglycemic work beyond recognition.
> 
> The Ellington work, although not among his best work - hampered as he was by the material he had to work with - it is an improvement over Tchaikovsky. From what I can tell from the trailer, The Hip Hop Nutcracker uses Hip-Hop dancers instead of ballet dancers, but the music is the same.


Those in the know value Tchaikovsky ballets as the irreplaceable masterpieces they are.


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## SanAntone

BachIsBest said:


> Those in the know value Tchaikovsky ballets as the irreplaceable masterpieces they are.


:lol:

You nut-crack-er me up.


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## Manxfeeder

Wouldn't translating the ballet of the Nutcracker into hip-hop be considered cultural appropriation?


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## Red Terror

Manxfeeder said:


> Wouldn't translating the ballet of the Nutcracker into hip-hop be considered cultural appropriation?


Technically, yes.


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## SanAntone

I hardly see how creating new choreography to the existing music is cultural appropriation.


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## Radames

Rogerx said:


> Although I can sympathize with the statement from SanAntone, I would go safe and take the classic one.


But I have seen the regular Nutcracker so many times. And the hip hop version has an electric violin.


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## Neo Romanza

Radames said:


> Has anyone seen it? If so what do you think? I am thinking of seeing it next week in CT. Or I could see the traditional one in Boston.


Go see the one that Tchaikovsky wrote and forget about anything affiliated with "hip hop", which has been a scourge on the popular music scene for decades now.


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## SanAntone

Decided against posting here anymore.


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## Radames

SanAntone said:


> Decided against posting here anymore.


And I decided not to see Nutcracker this year.


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## ando

mbhaub said:


> The Hip Hop Nutcracker? I can only imagine the horrors inflicted on that great score. It's like the Ellington jazz Nutcracker arrangements: they're just wrong, wrong, wrong. It's like a modern artist touching up the Mona Lisa because they think they have better ideas. Or remaking classic movies to fit some woke agenda. Nope...leave the Nutcracker as is in all its 19th c innocence and grandeur. Write your own ballet, if you think your good enough is what I say to those destroyers. Go traditional.


Boo. Being woke had nothing to do with non-traditional interpretations of anything. If you don't like black versions of traditional European classics, say it. But don't mischaracterize woke: it has no color.


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## hammeredklavier

I can only imagine how Tchaikovsky would have reacted upon seeing the stuff


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## Rogerx

Radames said:


> But I have seen the regular Nutcracker so many times. And the hip hop version has an electric violin.


Well, go on then, don't let me stop you, I even wish you luck .


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## jegreenwood

Years ago I saw Wynton Marsalis lead a performance of the Ellington version. It was a lot of fun. I've been known to stream it around Christmas time. And while I haven't seen the Hip Hop Nutcracker, I have seen Mark Morris's _The Hard Nut_ which plays reimagines the story (it is set in the 1970s), while maintaining Tchaikovsky's music. I liked that too. But you know what? They don't replace the original - that will always be there.


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## SanAntone

hammeredklavier said:


> I can only imagine how Tchaikovsky would have reacted upon seeing the stuff


Dead composers have no vote on modern performances of their works. Each new generation brings their life experiences and the current zeitgeist of their culture to bear on these performances, breathing new life into them in the process. It is one production, it isn't going to hurt Tchaikovsky or _The Nutcracker_.

I don't now what the big deal is about.


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