American Identity

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=R3kdY2vMO0w

The above link is a Youtube clip from Tchaikovsky's The Nutcracker. Most ballets are performed by a company of trained dancers. The performances are intricately choreographed to telegraph the emotions and feelings of the characters and to relay the plot of the story without using an dialogue. In this scene, the heroine Clara and the young prince watch a variety of performers, including a pair of dancers who are supposed to be Chinese. In the context of the ballet, this scene is supposed to be one of a series of wonders that the prince shows Clara because at the time of the writing of the ballet, few people would have had direct interaction with Chinese people. They appear in modified versions of traditional Chinese garb and appear to have exaggerated versions of Chinese peasant hats upon their heads. Although the performance is a ballet and the dance...
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