Trepak (The Nutcracker)

This article is about the ballet dance. For the packaging company, see Trepak International AB. For the Ukrainian folk dance, see Tropak. For the basketball player, see Zoltán Trepák.

"Trepak" (Russian: Трепак) (Ukrainian: Трoпак, Трiпак) is one of the several consecutive ethnic dances in Pyotr Ilyich Tchaikovsky's famous ballet The Nutcracker. It is based on the traditional Ukrainian folk dance known in Ukrainian as the Tropak or Tripak.

The "Trepak" often also goes under the name "Russian Dance" (the other ethnic dances of the ballet have dual names as well, e.g. "Tea" is also "Chinese Dance"). The dance makes much use of ethnic Ukrainian folk melodies.

Tchaikovsky's "Trepak" is written in AABA form. Its tempo is presto, its time signature is ²
₄ and its key is G major.

In Popular Culture

• Trepak is used in the Disney film Fantasia. In the sequence, flowers take the place of the Cossack dancers, with thistles resembling men in fur hats and orchids as women with bonnets.
• Different short arrangements of the first notes are used as the victory fanfare for the Game Boy version of the Tetris video game.

See also

• Tropak