‘When Olivier asked me to do a Nutcracker I was both surprised and delighted. I had seen many versions of this ballet. It was always a marvellous set in a fairyland of colours with a story that was sometimes very pantomime. The dance numbers were often breathtaking. I remembered the origin of the story: childhood and the forest. I was suddenly reminded of the cherubs I’d had running around in one of my shows. Suddenly I saw them as taller, more adult, but still with the same childlike spirit, and they had kept their little knickers, their white socks and their black shoes. To best respond to this wonderful proposal, I had to tell the story in a different way. To imagine a poetics of dance that could express the world and dreams, humility and fantasy, even if it meant sometimes going against the grain of traditional imagery. And then there was the passage written on the score of small numbers that evoked a world tour like a magic trick. So I imagined a little circus performed by these big, slightly dirty children, a dilapidated circus like a souvenir of our old daydreams. Moments suspended in the splash of time. I kept Tchaikovsky’s marvellous music, choosing the pieces in the order that suited my state of mind, so that they would live deeply and be better transmitted. Here I am today, launching onto the stage these children of the fir trees who, I hope, will make us dream, laugh and dance in a whirlwind of blissful survival!’

Jean-Claude Gallotta