Dancing Flowers; Tip Toeing around Russia

Fantasia: 1940

Alright, well back into the fray as they say.  And by 'they' I mean Charlotte of The Princess and the Frog fame.  So excuse me while I wipe the mascara from my teary eyes and adjust my dress.  Let's begin.  I have been thinking a lot about Fantasia as of late and I have been thinking about the Nutcracker Suite specifically.

Now, as we all know, the nutcracker suite in Fantasia has nothing to do with nutcracker's or the original ballet.  The segment I will be talking about today is below:

 

Russian Dance in Disney's 1940 film, Fantasia

We are told in the introduction to this movement that Tchaikovsky hated this composition and further more that the Nutcracker Ballet is not performed now a days.  Now, while perhaps the Nutcracker Ballet was not performed in the 1940's it is certainly, in my knowledge, one of the most well known ballets of all time.  Maybe I am missing something here, but the idea that a ballet that seems so popular now would have fallen out of fashion at the time of Fantasia seems unusual, but we press on.  This is not racist discussion, which is what I have committed to discuss for this film.

Concept art for Fantasia

"However, Russia represented something that the Untied States had never been a fan of...Communism."

Thinking about it, I am almost certain that people who are out to find fault with Walt Disney look to his work for any trace of reference to race and expect it to be racist without considering context and the historical period of not only the original distribution of the film, but also the time period in which the film was set.  One of the aspects of this movement in the film that, to my knowledge, has not received accusations of racism, and rightly so, is the dancing thistles and flowers (possibly violets) that appear.  They perform a dance characteristic of traditional Russian dance.  I really enjoy this homage as Russia is where ballet was refined and made into the art that it is today.  Here too we see a celebration of Russian culture.  Indeed, this section of the Nutcracker Suite is called the Russian dance. However, Russia represented something that the United States had never been a fan of...Communism.

Take a look at the traditional Russian dance depicted below, as well as the Russian Dance segment from the ballet below.  Given how far the animators and Disney strayed from the original Nutcracker storyline everywhere else, the use of the existing dance style and to that effect, story line is unusual.
 
 

Russian Army Choir presents: Kalinka

 

The Russian Dance in Tchaikovsky's Ballet, the Nutcracker

 

"The Red Scare was a term used in the United States to describe the rising fear of the growth of communism, communist support, and communist spies within the United States itself." 

Russia had hosted a revolution recently, the Bolshevik revolution of 1917-1921, effectively taking Russia out of World War II.  It had also brought on the first Red Scare.  The second red scare began in 1947, 7 years after the release of this film, in 1940.  The second Red Scare would go on to shake Hollywood to the core, an issue that Walt Disney spoke out in favour of anti-communism in front of the House of Un-American Activities Committee (HUAC), however, that is a story for a different time.  The Red Scare was a term used in the United States to describe the rising fear of the growth of communism, communist support, and communist spies within the United States itself.

Fantasia: 1940

It is interesting to consider the inclusion of Tchaikovsky's 'Russian Dance', given that the ballet was apparently not performed anymore so no one would know if it was left out, and given the obvious tension that was rising between Russia and the United States that would become the Cold War, and given Walt Disney's obvious vendetta against communism.

Fantasia: 1940

Fantasia: 1940

While initially I expected this to be a minute point in passing, given that the entire scene runs just over a minute, the more I thought about it, the more complex the inclusion of the Russian Dance as part of Tchaikovsky's Nutcracker Suite, in Walt Disney's rebirth of it in Fantasia came to be.  Perhaps not so much the musical piece itself, but more so the decision to use the piece to recreate traditional Russian dance given the rising tension between Russia and the United States at this time.  However, we must not forget that Russia and the United States were on the same side during World War II.  Still, the obvious tension between the two countries was still apparent at this time and had been apparent in the past as well and can not be overlooked in examining the short segment of the film.