Cello | The Nutcracker is a 1892 two-act ballet, originally choreographed by Marius Petipa and Lev Ivanov with a score by Pyotr Ilych Tchaikovsky (Op. 71). The libretto is adapted from E. T. A. Hoffmann's 1816 short store "The Nutcracker and the Mouse King". The Dance of the Mirlitons belongs to the second Act.