by Sarah McKenna Barry | Nov 25, 2024 | Career, Company Life, Everything "Nutcracker", Pointe+
Even to those on the periphery of the ballet world, The Nutcracker’s Sugar Plum Fairy is a familiar character. She appears on Christmas ornaments, wrapping paper, and on the pages of children’s storybooks. The celesta music that accompanies her variation is used in...
by Amy Brandt | Dec 12, 2019 | Career, Everything "Nutcracker", Instagram, Profiles
For many professional ballet dancers, Nutcracker means weeks of performances. That usually translates to multiple casts—and important breakout opportunities for those in the junior ranks. On the afternoon of December 13, Pennsylvania Ballet demi-soloist Thays...
by Julia Rosica | Dec 4, 2019 | Everything "Nutcracker", Viral Videos
For many a bunhead, “The Dance of the Sugar Plum Fairy” is not just a holiday tradition, but a rite of passage. The variation, with its tinkling celesta, bourrées and petit battus, is one that all ballet dancers are familiar with, and getting the...
by Chava Pearl Lansky | Aug 7, 2018 | Everything "Nutcracker", Just for fun, News
It’s August—the sun is shining, summer intensives are winding down, and Nutcracker seems very far away. But this new trailer for Disney’s The Nutcracker and the Four Realms is already getting us in the holiday mood. While this modern take on the...
by Chava Pearl Lansky | Aug 7, 2018 | News
It’s August—the sun is shining, summer intensives are winding down, and Nutcracker seems very far away. But this new trailer for Disney’s The Nutcracker and the Four Realms is already getting us in the holiday mood. While this modern take on the...
by Julia Rosica | Dec 20, 2017 | Everything "Nutcracker", Profiles, TBT
Gelsey Kirkland and Mikhail Baryshnikov in The Nutcracker are simply iconic—two of the world’s most celebrated dancers in the world’s best-loved ballet. Starring as Clara and the Prince in American Ballet Theater’s 1977 made-for-television film,...
by Céline Gittens As Told To Amy Brandt | Dec 17, 2017 | Dream Role, Profiles
Our company’s Nutcracker was choreographed by Sir Peter Wright, and it’s very traditional. We usually only have two weeks to prepare after the end of the autumn season, so my partner and I start going over the grand pas de deux on our own time before...
by Nicole Loeffler-Gladstone | Dec 3, 2016 | Company Life
She’s regal, yet kind. Approachable yet commanding. Delicate yet firm. Clara may be the heart of Nutcracker, but the Sugar Plum Fairy is its soul, with her sparkling, queenly dancing. In most versions of the ballet, we sit through nearly the whole thing just to...