Who is the Mouse King?

The mindset of those Russians who remain in the country bears no comparison to that of their compatriots who have managed to make the leap abroad. Those who stayed behind are not residents; they are the subjects of centralism, subjects of the Mouse King from The Nutcracker. What is happening in Moscow right now is a game of cat and mouse, culture against censorship. Yet it was only ten years ago that the authorities realized how all their stages serve as sites of resistance.

Since then, the opera has dropped such outstanding directors as Timofey Kulyabin, while in theater, Elizaveta Bondar pared down her Macbeth to the very last word. At the moment, it is primarily dance artists who remain, using their space for a “body of protest,” led by Pavel Glukhov of Ballet Moscow.

On the anniversary of the invasion of Ukraine—which, of course, is called something entirely different in Russia, namely “Defender of the Fatherland Day,” and is observed a day earlier—Pavel Glukhov is betting on his Nutcracker—that iconic winter ballet. His take on this classic speaks volumes about this regime. Glukhov’s interpretation is making history. From today onward, no one can turn back from his reading of this dance fairy tale.