The Nutcracker

From $39

The Nutcracker is one of the most complex theatrical, staged ballets in the repertory. The popularity of the ballet is immense and it provides an unforgettable spark to everyone’s holiday season.

The Gulfshore Ballet joins the Gulf Coast Symphony to present Tchaikovsky’s mesmerizing holiday classic – The Nutcracker. Original Choreography by Iliana Lopez and Franklin Gamero. This two-act ballet is based on the Alexandre Dumas père version of E.T.A. Hoffmann’s tale, The Nutcracker and the Mouse King (1816), and centers on a family’s Christmas Eve Celebration. It is the perfect introduction to ballet for the entire family!

90 dancers, 48 musicians, 10 stagehands, including more than 70 children, in two alternating casts, join forces to make each performance as magical as possible.

Elaborate stage elements and intricate lighting unleash the viewers’ imagination by providing visual effects that are extraordinarily grand. For example is the Christmas tree that grows from a height of 10 feet to 30 feet, evoking audible gasps of disbelief from the audience at each performance. Other notable feats include the comic figure of Mother Ginger — 85 pounds and nine feet wide, the costume requires handling by three people once it is lowered by pulley over the dancer’s head — as well as the continuous flutter of the purest, crystal-shaped snowflakes (which are swept up and conserved after each performance for reuse).

While these technical achievements are wonderful fun, it is the imaginative choreography that sustains the ballet through two acts. Act I introduces the characters — the children, Marie and Fritz, Herr Drosselmeier and his Nephew — and also begins the transition from reality into fantasy with the concluding Snowflake Waltz. Act II offers the complete transformation, when we enter the “Kingdom of the Sugarplum Fairy” and there is no turning back.