Event

Gelsey Kirkland Ballet's The Nutcracker

The Nutcracker, composed by Peter Ilyich Tchaikovsky, is the richly symbolic story about a young girl's journey through fear and darkness to the light of love. The Nutcracker is one of the most popular stories in the canon of classical ballet. Marie's transformation from child to princess begins with an unlikely gift from her godfather at a Christmas Eve party; an ugly doll that cracks nuts. Follow Marie's journey as she is menaced by dancing rats and ultimately rescued by the Nutcracker who leads her up the Christmas tree into the land of snow and beyond...into his kingdom. In the version presented by Gelsey Kirkland Ballet and Michael Chernov, Marie is an active participant in this dream, dancing the famous pas de deux with her Prince rather than observing her escort dance with the Sugar Plum Fairy.

Featuring original choreography by Co-Artistic Director Michael Chernov and assisted by Ms. Kirkland and Alexandra Lawler, The Nutcracker will showcase the talents of the company which consists of dancers from all over the world. The Nutcracker will also feature a 70-member ensemble comprised of graduates and trainees of the Gelsey Kirkland Academy of Classical Ballet.

One of the most celebrated prima ballerinas this country has produced, Gelsey Kirkland writes, "Each time I come back to The Nutcracker, I find more layers of meaning in the symbolic rite of passage of the child who journeys through some of life's dangers and finds her special Prince." At the age of twenty-five, Kirkland danced the lead role with Mikhail Baryshnikov in the American Ballet Theater production of The Nutcracker, which was filmed and became an annual holiday broadcast on PBS.