{"id":32,"date":"2022-10-13T19:07:49","date_gmt":"2022-10-13T23:07:49","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/nutcracker.com\/?page_id=32"},"modified":"2025-07-08T15:14:20","modified_gmt":"2025-07-08T19:14:20","slug":"about","status":"publish","type":"page","link":"https:\/\/nutcracker.com\/about\/","title":{"rendered":"About"},"content":{"rendered":"

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Behind The Curtain<\/h2>\n

Talmi Entertainment\u2019s NUTCRACKER! Magical Christmas Ballet<\/strong>, now celebrating its 33rd\u00a0<\/span>annual tour,\u00a0 has become a Christmas tradition for families across North America. In 2025, NUTCRACKER! Magical Christmas Ballet<\/strong> returns to over 100 cities sharing the joy and magic that audiences nationwide have enjoyed for over thirty years.<\/p>\n

Featuring renowned ballerinas and danseurs from the leading opera houses of the world<\/a>, Broadway-level sets and costumes, and vibrant new choreography that fuses classical ballet, puppetry, and acrobatics, NUTCRACKER! Magical Christmas Ballet<\/strong> is a holiday spectacular, having won critical acclaim from critics and audiences alike.<\/p>\n

NUTCRACKER! Magical Christmas Ballet<\/strong> consistently delivers record-breaking seasons, thrilling audiences from New York City to Los Angeles and Puerto Rico to Calgary. With a history of offering classical ballets<\/a> such as NUTCRACKER!, Cinderella, Sleeping Beauty, and Swan Lake, sold-out theaters attest to the enduring quality of Talmi Entertainment productions.<\/p>\n

The press confirms artistic excellence: the LA Times states, “Disarmingly poetic\u2026bravura expertise”; the Minneapolis Pioneer Press says, “Sweeps you up in the bliss of beauty”; and the Arkansas Democrat-Gazette notes, “Stunning visuals, effortless dancing\u2026full of joyful energy.”<\/p>\n

NUTCRACKER! Magical Christmas Ballet<\/strong> boasts award-winning principal dancers and a corps de ballet of 40 Vaganova-trained ballerinas and danseurs who make the holiday tradition for families across America uniquely special. Averaging 100 performances during November and December, this phenomenon combines the highest caliber ballet with historic international theatrical traditions, 10-foot-tall playful puppets, 9 intricately hand-painted backdrops, and hundreds of exquisite costumes.<\/p>\n

NUTCRACKER! Magical Christmas Ballet’s<\/strong> unique “Dance with Us<\/a>” program allows thousands of local children to perform side-by-side with the professional company in roles created just for them and at varying skill levels. NUTCRACKER! Magical Christmas Ballet<\/strong> Audition Directors travel the United States each Fall before the tour to personally audition and rehearse aspiring student dancers, preparing them to perform with the professional company. This is truly a once-in-a-lifetime experience for young dancers.<\/p>\n

NUTCRACKER! Magical Christmas Ballet<\/strong> is also all about community engagement, which includes Creative Development Residencies, interactive workshops and performances for all children via New Horizons<\/a> \u2013 A Children’s Program for Life, the opportunity for local, accomplished pre-professional musicians to accompany the principal ballerina through the Musical Wunderkind program, and more.<\/p>\n

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History of NUTCRACKER! Magical Christmas Ballet<\/h1>\n

NUTCRACKER! Magical Christmas Ballet,<\/strong> a classic Holiday story, originated as a fairy tale ballet in two acts that revolve around the Stahlbaum family’s Christmas Eve celebration. Alexandre Dumas P\u00e8re adapted the story by E.T.A. Hoffmann, which was set to music by Tchaikovsky and choreographed by Marius Petipa. Commissioned by Ivan Vsevolozhsky, the director of Moscow’s Imperial Theatres in 1891, the ballet premiered a week before Christmas in 1892.<\/p>\n

Since its premiere in Western countries in the 1940s, “The Nutcracker” has become the most popular ballet performed during Christmas. The story focuses on a young girl’s Christmas Eve and her discovery of the magical wonder of toys coming to life, enchanted animals, and an adventure to the Land of Peace and Harmony<\/a> in Act II. Before the ballet’s premiere in December 1892, the composer selected eight of the most popular pieces, which formed the Nutcracker Suite, Op. 71a, as heard in NUTCRACKER! Magical Christmas Ballet<\/strong> productions. The suite became instantly popular, but the complete ballet did not achieve its current popularity, with millions of tickets sold each season until almost 100 years later.<\/p>\n

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Hot ticket…magnetic sense of theater<\/h3>\n

New York Times<\/p>\n

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Technically supreme dancing, dazzling… authentically opulent…<\/h3>\n