December 14, 2023

I think it's nice — tapdancing Nutcracker at the White House.

It's churlish grinchery to take potshots.

117 comments:

MadisonMan said...

Meh. This has the same problem as the movie "A Chorus Line" If I'm watching dancers, I really need to see their feet!

Rob said...

Bah, humbug!

WWIII Joe Biden, Husk-Puppet + America's Putin said...

Hunger Games.

WWIII Joe Biden, Husk-Puppet + America's Putin said...

Look past Biden corruption... and enjoy the show. (Obey everyone!)

Big Mike said...

Then I guess I’m a churlish grinch. But shouldn’t a “playful interpretation of The Nutcracker Suite” actually use Tchaikovsky’s music?

Gusty Winds said...

It's Christmas funny like gag gifts. Reindeer barf. Elf poop. Candy coal.

The video so bad is has to be satire. It's like one of those campy movies that are so awful, they're kid of good.

The traffic this video gets will be like a gawker's delay on a busy road when people want a clear view of the accident.

WWIII Joe Biden, Husk-Puppet + America's Putin said...

Jill Biden is a fraud - she makes my stomach turn.

tim maguire said...

I couldn't bear to watch the whole thing, but I don't see any problem here. Yes, the Dems would go nuts if Melania did this, but they'd be wrong to do so. It's fine.

Lilly, a dog said...

That was magnificent. Everyone should hear Duke Ellington's Nutcracker Suite as often as possible. Thanks for sharing it.

Tofu King said...

I liked it. No need to be churless.

Christopher said...

There's something degenerate about it, can't quite put my finger on it.

Hated it though. Tap-dancing is great, that's not the problem.

Critter said...

Waiting for the calls of cultural appropriation.

Mike (MJB Wolf) said...

Fake doctor Jill is just so weird. This is a reminder to all just how weird. To be fair, I'm fairly anti-Nutcracker year round and its my second least favorite Christmas music, right behind Mariah.

WWIII Joe Biden, Husk-Puppet + America's Putin said...

I'm glad they didn't use Tchaikovsky’s music. I love listening to The Nutcracker this time of year.

Mike (MJB Wolf) said...

"Creepy" is my best descriptor for it. Very creepy.

Iman said...

Bring on teh Manroller Steamhiney!

cassandra lite said...

Choreographed and staged by Jill’s stylist.

Oligonicella said...

Althouse:
It's churlish grinchery to take potshots.

What's what's a Christmas reference when one fawns?

mikeski said...

Jesse Kelly on TwiXter:

"People are dogging on this video, but always keep something in mind: "They're not talking to you. They're not even trying to talk to you. Every single part of Democrat messaging is aimed at the beating heart of the Democratic Party: Mentally ill women on anxiety meds."

AA: "I think it's nice[...]"

And there you have it.

Beth B said...

Remember kids, don't do drugs!

Bob Boyd said...

Nobody will ever top Hillary's Nutcracker in the White House.

Goldenpause said...

I’d rather Jill had just taken the money spent on this video and burned it in a White House fireplace. At least then we wouldn’t be stuck with this video.

wendybar said...

Not surprised they hired divisive RACISTS to perform. Typical for Progressives who aren't as tolerant as they claim they are.


Sarah Fields
@SarahisCensored
Dorrance Dance, the New York City based tap dance company that performed the atrocious version of The Nutcracker Suite in the White House, has a full page on their site dedicated to teaching white people to “check their privilege”. They also state to “be mindful of who/what is financially supporting the candidates you vote for” while linking site visitors to BLM and SURJ, an organization dedicated to “organizing white people for racial justice.”

Jersey Fled said...

I’m not allowed to take potshots, right?

wendybar said...

Not surprised they hired divisive RACISTS to perform. Typical for Progressives who aren't as tolerant as they claim they are. If ANYBODY should check their privilege...it is the Bidens...especially Hunter.


Sarah Fields
@SarahisCensored
Dorrance Dance, the New York City based tap dance company that performed the atrocious version of The Nutcracker Suite in the White House, has a full page on their site dedicated to teaching white people to “check their privilege”. They also state to “be mindful of who/what is financially supporting the candidates you vote for” while linking site visitors to BLM and SURJ, an organization dedicated to “organizing white people for racial justice.”

hombre said...

I don't recognize the music. Have I just forgotten, or am I a churlish grinch?

CJinPA said...

Well, they didn't sexualize it. That's a small win. Otherwise, since I don't know the original, it's fine. Everyone loves tap.

FullMoon said...

Nutcracker. Ball-breaker.

What’s in a name? that which we call a rose
By any other name would smell as sweet;

Dagwood said...

>i

"Sure, Jan."

FullMoon said...
This comment has been removed by the author.
The Vault Dweller said...

I like the White House Christmas decorations, (well other than that first hallway.) I also like Christmas as a national holiday, Jehovah's Witnesses be darned. It is the holiday that I feel has the best chance to get everyone feeling that goodwill to all mood.

Joe Smith said...

They are super-woke.

They even have an 'Antiracism' tab on their website.

Dems take care of their own...

ceowens said...

They are "tap dancing" at White House all right.

Joe Smith said...

'I liked it. No need to be churless.'

Did you know the opposite of 'churlish' is 'churros'?

Most people don't.

WWIII Joe Biden, Husk-Puppet + America's Putin said...

Jesse Kelly is hilarious. Much funnier than anything on the rot that is NBC.

Rusty said...

Althouse:
"It's churlish grinchery to take potshots."
Yes. Yes it is.
Wes Anderson could do it better. And I like the way you modified 'grinch'.

Rocco said...

“It's churlish grinchery to take potshots.”

Who is Cindy Lou Who in this scenario? The guy with the big flower on his head?

lonejustice said...

Well, at least it's not as bad as the dancing on The Lawrence Welk Show.

Odi said...

Feels like a remix of The Shinning. Not a fan.

FullMoon said...

Am I the only one who seldom, but occasionally, misses a good old-fashioned acid trip?

FullMoon said...

Little known fact: The song "Bojangles" was actually written about a white man, not Bill "Bojangles" Robinson.

FullMoon said...

"y'all a bunch of recists"

Levi Starks said...

Yesterday I was watching a 70’s rerun of “Match Game” and Gene Rayburn had one of the backstage workers come out front. He was a nicely dressed black man. Gene then tried to get him to tap-dance. Awkward….

Clyde said...

Very Weimar. I suppose it would be churlish to say more.

JaimeRoberto said...

Not my cup of tea, but not worth getting my panties in a bunch either.

Birches said...

It's really boring to watch and I'm not sure why. It should really be exciting. Tap dancing is great. Music is fine. But the camera work doesn't seem focused on the dancers' footwork. Maybe that's it. Feels mailed in.

baghdadbob said...

It's simply a reminder to the faithful that this is Obama's 3rd term.

Churlishy yours,

The Grinch.

Leland said...

Is it ok to enjoy presentations by a company that makes it clear they are racists?

Static Ping said...

I am starting to understand why they couldn't identify who brought the drugs into the White House.

Honestly, after watching that they could use more cocaine.

Mr. D said...

It’s a step up from the choreography of a 70s variety show. The Hunger Games vibe may not have been intended but it was absolutely present. As usual, I am not the audience.

Ampersand said...

Pretty impressive production values. I wonder what it cost? Looks like at least a two day shoot, and lots of post production.

readering said...

Maybe for a couple of days this month forego posts that seem to invite churlish comments.

n.n said...

Cultural appropriation is churlish grinchery and potshots, but that's the Democratic model and method of the diversity, equity, and inclusion (DEI) racket.

Lilly, a dog said...

Sorry, I misread the prompt. I can see now that you were inviting the most miserable commenters to chime in.

PJ57 said...


Why all the hate? I thought it was entertaining and unexpected. And I dislike Jill Biden as much as any of you.

NYC JournoList said...

It's literally a song and dance intended to distract us from the prodigal son...

narciso said...


Nope

https://twitter.com/EndWokeness/status/1735360927447302163

stutefish said...

Huh. I was expecting a recurring performance in the foyer, for the entertainment of visitors. Not a pre-recorded set piece where our POV cameraman keeps overrunning the performers. Did they not rehearse the blocking of these shots?

Also I can't be the only one picking up a vague "let's put all the house negroes in costumes and have them put on a show for the white folks" vibe from this.

The Crack Emcee said...

I stopped after 35 seconds. It just doesn't say "Christmas"

Aggie said...

Wait a minute - an ultra-woke, mostly black dance company with 'a full page on their site dedicated to teaching white people to “check their privilege”' proceeds to create a video of smiling black people tap-dancing to music that was culturally-appropriated from a white (Caucasian-Russian) composer? Does their website also have a 'check your ironic stereotype' page?

MadisonMan said...

This is how you photograph tap dancers.

CJinPA said...

Of course it looks like the dance group is deeply ideological and racial. Everything must be about The Movement.

Sarah Fields @SarahisCensored:

Dorrance Dance, the New York City based tap dance company that performed the atrocious version of The Nutcracker Suite in the White House, has a full page on their site dedicated to teaching white people to "check their privilege". They also state to "be mindful of who/what is financially supporting the candidates you vote for" while linking site visitors to BLM and SURJ, an organization dedicated to "organizing white people for racial justice."

Rocco said...

readering said...
“Maybe for a couple of days this month forego posts that seem to invite churlish comments.”

On the First Day of Christmas,
My True Love gave to me,
A comment that was churlish free…

madAsHell said...

My in-laws were devoted to the opera. Every year, they would sponsor a trip to the Nutcracker.

Of course, it didn't take very long for Nutcracker to devolve into ButtWhacker amongst the adolescents.

A few years later, none of the family members could remember what the original name was!!

tim maguire said...

I've given it some thought and there is at least 1 legitimate complaint about this video--this is the White House Christmas message. As such, the Bidens have an obligation to make it accessible to as many people as possible. They clearly have done the opposite, catering to a fairly narrow audience to the exclusion of most others.

wendybar said...

Redone for our enjoyment....

https://twitter.com/i/status/1735361223133135110

Howard said...

April, you are the fraud. I don't care how much of the Biden criminal theory is true, but becoming sick to your stomach about it is 100% on you. Derangement Syndrome is a self inflicted wound. In fact, people like you are clinical masochists. The world has always been and will always be a fucked up place that we have no control over. The only thing we can control is ourselves and our immediate circle of family friends and associates. Just for 1 minute imagine how horrible life is for many of the people in Asia the Middle East Africa and on Indian reservations in the middle of nowhere out west. Murder corruption starvation is the norm in most of the world governing most of the billions of people on this planet. Blaming all your problems on your liberal neighbors is just a lazy pathetic cop out. I love cliches because they are so true:

"Resentment is like drinking poison and waiting for the other person to die."


Blogger I stand w Isreal. Leftists, Mullahs, Hamas-Palistinian terrorists can suck it said...
Jill Biden is a fraud - she makes my stomach turn.

Butkus51 said...

I thought cultural appropriation was a thing?

We need an updated rulebook.

Lars Porsena said...

Decentering the whiteness of Christmas.

Old and slow said...

I'll just say nothing... It was very well done. There.

madAsHell said...

As usual, I am not the audience.

I think it's the testosterone.

Rafe said...

From the Kennedy Center website:

“*Full Title: We Present to You: The Nutcracker Suite or, a Rhythmaturgical Evocation of the SuperLeviathonic Enchantments of Duke and Billy’s Supreme Adaptation of Tchaikovsky’s Masterpiece That Tells a Tale of a Misunderstood Girl Who Kills a King and Meets a Queen and Don’t Forget OOOO-Gong-Chi-Gong-Sh’-Gon-Make-It-Daddy, and That It Ain’t So Bad After All.”

Not a joke - that’s *real*.

The thing about this horseshit fuck of a cocking train wreck is, the potshots churl themselves.

- Rafe

The Vault Dweller said...

Blogger Big Mike said...
Then I guess I’m a churlish grinch. But shouldn’t a “playful interpretation of The Nutcracker Suite” actually use Tchaikovsky’s music?


I've kind of got a tin ear, but I think it is supposed to be an interpretation of the Flower Waltz part of The Nutcracker. That opening of the White House video, when that trumpet with the mute is played kind of reminds me of the horn part of The Flower Waltz. Also that one dancer seems to be dressed as a flower.

The Vault Dweller said...

@Big Mike, Lilly, a dog above identified the piece for us. It is the Waltz of the Flowers, from Duke Ellington's Nutcracker Suite.

madAsHell said...

That's all we get from the White House.......tap dancing!!

Temujin said...

How's this for churlish?

Fuck Jill Biden and her virtue signaling anarchist dance troupe.

Maybe suspend me through the holidays.

TML said...

Very cool, but the arrangement is too far off the original melody to pull me in enough. Definitely a great idea.

DUSTER said...

More cowbell...

DUSTER said...

More cowbell.

Josephbleau said...

Was it churlish and grinchy to torch Melania for her beautiful winter forest decorations? As I recall, no.

But can’t we just be sweet to poor Jill now, no matter what we did to others?

William said...

It's tasteless and gross.

FullMoon said...

Comparing Jill's to Melania's is like comparing Trump's children to Biden's.

Mike of Snoqualmie said...

Flat. Lousy choreography.

FullMoon said...

Communist Russias Christmas video

Nancy said...

Do readers Big Mike and I stand with Israel not realize that the music is Tchaikovsky "Waltz of the Flowers"jazzed up?

Hugh said...

No one’s ever accused me of being a churlish grinch but not my taste.

donald said...

Family oriented it is not.

FullMoon said...

The dancers are talented.
Positive comments on X are sparse.

JK Brown said...

"churlish"?

How common and deplorable to comment on the dance.

"churl" - • archaic a person of low birth; a peasant. coerl

The eorls and ceorls of Offa and Ecgbert could not read or write, and did not receive a weekly newspaper with such information as newspapers in that age could supply; yet neither their houses, their clothing, their food and drink, their agricultural tools and methods, their stock, nor their habits were so greatly altered or improved by time that they would have found much difficulty in accommodating their lives to that of their descendants in the eighteenth century.. Henry Adams, 1870

Ficta said...

Thanks @Lilly, a dog, I had somehow remained unaware of the Ellington/Strayhorn Nutcracker until now.

FullMoon said...

What were the other choices? Dogs woofing Jingle Bells?

Jim at said...

What in theee fresh hell did I just watch? Made it 30 seconds (without the sound) hoping it would get better.

Reason #9,872,669 I never click on videos.

Birches said...

Madison Man's video was much better. Every time the Biden dancers did something that might be interesting, the camera wasn't showing their feet. Dumb.

WWIII Joe Biden, Husk-Puppet + America's Putin said...

Nancy-- I did not recognize the jazzed up waltz of the flowers.
no one should jazz up - Waltz of the Flowers.
eee gads.

I did listen again - and sure enough.

ear bleach

WWIII Joe Biden, Husk-Puppet + America's Putin said...

The Bidens are awful people.
Holiday extravaganza bling bling changes nothing.

Enlighten-NewJersey said...

I appreciated the video more after the second viewing. I was distracted by the guy in the green outfit because it seemed his pants were too short and the girl in the blue dress with a gaping mouth bothered me too. Anyway, it was certainly different and a pure American take on the season.

best president ever said...

It's strange, reminds of some of odd scenes in Twin Peaks or the movie Blue Velvet.

Oligonicella said...

A weird blend of Whoville, Fosse and acid. Music was nice. Fit a general holiday party vibe if a bit nightclubby. Someone had the hots for mylar.

Oligonicella said...

churlish is right up there with garner

Oligonicella said...

FullMoon:
Communist Russias Christmas video.

Beautiful. I lived in Kansas City and grew up with the Plaza lights.

I appreciated them more when I was contracting, if the night was clear the airlines would frequently bring us home over the Plaza. In the pitch black, a tiny little pretty village with a brook running next to it.

There's also a colored light fountain somewhere that turns into a snowcone in the winter.

Larry said...

The Biden's have the right to do this, but my reaction is much the same as to any other national vulgarity

I immediately cringed just as I would jerk my hand from a hot stove top. I'm embarrassed for whomever thought this up and had it executed. Obviously, that is just me

MikeD said...

Disney's Fantasia did it much better with crocodiles & hippos.

Mark said...

Aggie: " to music that was culturally-appropriated from a white (Caucasian-Russian) composer?"

LMAO
Aggie never made it through the second act, where the OG white composer had the many cultural appropriation dances from different cultures.

Many of which have had the outrageous costumes and stereotypes of the past toned down of late.

That said, seeing the Bolshoi do the Russian dance section is the most athletic marvel I have seen live.

What's emanating from your penumbra said...

If you don't appreciate my art you're a bad person!

Dude1394 said...

You forget where we are playing. Democrats call everything something and make everything political. THAT is the way they have forced the game. It will never stop.

Bunkypotatohead said...

It looks like a bunch of drag queens.

veni vidi vici said...

Why are the white women all cross-dressers and the sole white man is an obviously over-the-top gay guy.

If you think it's churlish grinchery to point out this glaring peculiarity, yours is foolish panty-bunchery.

veni vidi vici said...

Couldn't use the original Tchaikovsky music -- way too Russian, and we're all about hating everything Russian now, as the Bidens and their administration tell it.

What a bunch of cockamamie losers the Biden family members are. And we have their word, as Bidens.

rwnutjob said...

A lefty intern’s wet dream. How many black people & weird shit can we put in here to piss off right wing troglodytes?

And Melania’s Christmas was panned. SMDH

wendybar said...

"And Melania’s Christmas was panned. SMDH"

From class to trash. This is what a fraudulent election gets you.

Tina Trent said...

Anti-white racist, pro-Jewish genocide blacks tap dancing in the White House.

Who knew irony could be so festive?

I liked the dancing.

Aggie said...

Mark said:

"Many of which have had the outrageous costumes and stereotypes of the past toned down of late...."

DO tell us more! What should the dancing Chinamen look like? Should their music be oriental-themed, to communicate the art - or should it be more westernized? How about the Russian dancers? Was Tchaikovsky allowed to use Cossacks, his fellow Russians, or is this really cultural appropriation? How about the Arabic dancers? You do remember that these themes were all based on confections and delicacies of the Christmas holiday and their European traditions - right?

And: What statements did the composer make to lay his position groundwork of social virtue in advance? What stake did he claim to perpetuate the White Patriarchy so odiously? Please do tell us more about what you think is wrong with the Nutcracker - we're here to learn.

WWIII Joe Biden, Husk-Puppet + America's Putin said...

I watched it a few more times... and it grew on me.

My initial reaction was "hunger games"

Rusty said...

Howard said...
April,
Just remember, April that Howard voted for our current misery and is backpedaling as fast as he can to hide that fact. Why. By the election after next he will be well on his way to convincing himself that he voted for trump.

Immanuel Rant said...

I wish I had named myself Churlish Grinch in retrospect.

ex-madtown girl said...

I've watched many old musicals with tap, and my daughter is a tap dancer. We both agreed that their dancing was clunky, and that they also attempted to embellish their dancing by laying over extra tap sounds. And the decorations were cheap and flimsy. High school production level. I was initially onboard when the original lady started out, but it just got progressively worse until it reached peak cringe with the Wall Street inspired, air guitar playing Mouse King.

gilbar said...

https://thenationalpulse.com/2023/12/15/biden-white-house-tap-dancers-openly-promote-anti-white-hate/
The Biden’s White House’s tap dancing troupe has been a long-standing promoter of anti-white hatred, as well as boosting the Palestinian “ethnic cleansing” hoax, according to the organization – Dorrance Dance’s – own website.