New York City Ballet’s Annual Production of George Balanchine’s The Nutcracker Returns
(© Erin Baiano)
New York City Ballet continues its 75th anniversary season with its annual production of George Balanchine’s The Nutcracker, playing November 24-December 31 at the David H. Koch Theater at Lincoln Center for the Performing Arts.
New York City Ballet’s (NYCB) production, seen by more than 100,000 people annually, premiered on February 2, 1954, and helped to establish The Nutcracker and its score by Peter Ilyitch Tchaikovsky as perennial favorites in the United States.
The production features choreography by Balanchine. The company’s entire roster of more than 150 dancers and musicians, as well as more than 125 children, in two alternating casts, from the School of American Ballet, the official school of New York City Ballet, participate in the ballet.
The scenery by Rouben Ter-Arutunian includes a one-ton Christmas tree that grows from 16 to 41 feet. The hundreds of costumes by Karinska include one for Mother Ginger that measures 9 feet wide and weighs 85 pounds. The lighting is by Mark Stanley, after the original design by Ronald Bates. The production’s grand finale involves one million watts of lighting, the most used in any New York City Ballet production.
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