From "Highbrow" To "Holiday Custom"

"Without The Nutcracker, Christmas will be no longer Christmas." This western popular saying shows the great influence of The Nutcracker as ballet in western culture. The Nutcracker, along with "Swan Lake" and "Sleeping Beauty", which are all composed by Tchaikovsky and co-choreographied or choreography by Petipa and Ivanov, almost becomes synonymous of "ballet".This show was unveiled in 1892. After a rise-and-fall fate, it has survived indomitably and dozens of its versions were derived from it in different countries and diverse periods. It is proved to be the most favorite classic ballet show all over the world, especially in western countries. The reasons of that are except its own immense artistic value, "The Nutcracker" conforms to the trend of historical development and reinvents itself on content, form and medium of communication constantly to close to the fact, the life and the mass. From a common ballet only enjoyed by few noble and elites to become one important part of the common's holiday custom, "The Nutcracker" has proved that the factor of "people" is playing a great role in literary and artistic creation and development by the "amazing" experience of its own.This thesis will start the study of the relationship between the development and circulation of the classical ballet, "The Nutcracker" and social development. By analyzing and researching this ballet using the method of history-studying and the way of sociology-criticizing, the thesis will go about the historical origin, artistic characteristic, and cultural influence of "The Nutcracker" to get the reasons why "The Nutcracker" is always being in favor all over the world. In the end, the conclusion will be proved that "the factor of people "(or "the development of close civilian change") is the key point for "the Nutcracker ", the classical ballet to keep it "Art is long", what's more, two methods to promote and maintain the development of close civilian change of "the Nutcracker" are to make the ballet itself contemporary and local ceaselessly.