After the death of the founder of Ballet Russes (Russian Ballet), Sergei Diaghilev, in 1929, the original company — which during its short history included esteemed dancers such as Vaslav Nijinsky and Anna Pavlova and collaborators like Pablo Picasso and Igor Stravinsky — dispersed to establish other ballet companies across the world.
The antipodean expeditions, from 1936 to 1940, organized by Diaghilev's successor, the grandly named impresario Colonel Wassily de Basil, had a huge impact and lasting effect on Australian life and cultural identity. In 2006, The Australian Ballet, the National Library of Australia and the University of Adelaide embarked on a four-year collaborative project titled "Ballet Russes in Australia: Our Cultural Revolution" to honor the profound impression these episodes had on the Australian artistic landscape.
In the final year of the project, choreographer Graeme Murphy's 1992 interpretation of "The Nutcracker," renamed "Nutcracker — The Story of Clara," was revived. Created to celebrate The Australian Ballet's 30th anniversary, Murphy's "Nutcracker" tells the tale of a former Russian ballerina living in Melbourne, who remembers and relives her eventful career on Christmas Eve, 1950. It is essentially a tribute to the Russian dancers who made Australia their home during the 1930s and '40s and helped inspire and create some of the country's leading ballet companies, including the early foundations of The Australian Ballet.