All hail the TikTok Rat King
All hail the TikTok Rat King
The American Ballet Theatre’s production of The Nutcracker is gaining new fans thanks to TikTok.
Embedded is your essential guide to what’s good on the internet, from Kate Lindsay and Nick Catucci.🧩
Could not be more proud, amused, and exhausted to end this year for Embedded writing about a dancing rat. We’re taking next week off for the holiday—see you in 2022! —Kate
In yet another festive season of uncertainty, this year’s symbol of Christmas cheer is a rat. Specifically, the rats that make up the cast of the American Ballet Theatre’s production of The Nutcracker. If you’re in Costa Mesa, California, you may have seen one of the show’s many performances in the lead-up to the big day. If you’re not, then you can still catch a different kind of performance happening on TikTok.
While TikTok is an app known for dancing, it’s not often a classically-trained dancer makes it on any given For You page—even more rarely one wearing pink shoes and a rat mask. But the American Ballet Theatre has been posting behind-the-scenes footage of their dancers participating in popular TikTok trends, and the rats (and Rat King himself) have emerged as fan favorites.
Quick Nutcracker refresher: The ballet is based on "The Nutcracker and the King of Mice" written by E.T.A. Hoffman, which tells the story of a young girl who, upon receiving a wooden Nutcracker, dreams about him as a Nutcracker Prince who must battle a Mouse King and his army of mice—which are sometimes, as you may have guessed, substituted with rats.
But honestly, lack of context is key to enjoying the ABT’s TikTok of two majestically costumed rats dancing to “Own Brand Freestyle” by Dreya Mac and FelixThe1st. Commenters are equal parts delighted and perplexed to see them.
“I’m def having a weird dream about this later,” one wrote.
“Imagine showing this to a victorian child,” another joked.
The theater was happy to get the attention. When the first rat video received over six million views, the entire tenor of the ATR account changed. Suddenly, cast members were jerking and the rats were brought back for more videos, including a dance to Chloe Bailey’s “Have Mercy” and a “face reveal,” which prompted my favorite interaction in the comments:
“Wait y’all are adults right,” one user asked.
“Yes we can absolutely see rated R movies,” the ATR account replied.
Nutcracker season is now over, but the account was still going strong with rat content as recently as last night. The hope, I assume, is that this renewed passion for ballet can carry over into 2022, when the theater is touring Don Quixote. Ideas for creating a Miguel de Cervantes side of TikTok, I assume, are welcome.