The Nutcracker Ballet is based on the book entitled "The Nutcracker and the Mouse King" written by E.T.A. Hoffman. The legendary choreographer Marius Petipa commissioned Tchaikovsky to write the music for the Nutcracker Ballet in 1891. The following year, the very first performance of the Nutcracker appeared at the Mariinsky Theatre in Russia, the home of the Kirov Ballet. In the United States, the first full-length Nutcracker was choreographed by W. Christensen and performed by the San Francisco Ballet in 1944. Today the Nutcracker is an annual holiday tradition, performed by ballet companies large and small all over the world.