The Nutcracker

The Joffrey Ballet's 2010-2011 season, entitled Stars, continues with the 23rd anniversary of Chicago's most popular family holiday event, Robert Joffrey's The Nutcracker, once again transforming the Auditorium Theatre into a winter wonderland complete with magical toys, dancing snowflakes and exotic sweets. The Joffrey Ballet presents America's #1 Nutcracker at the Auditorium Theatre of Roosevelt University, 50 East Congress Parkway, Chicago, December 10 - 26, 2010.

This original production combines classical elegance with thrilling explosive action, set amidst lavish period costumes and spectacular scenery depicting Victorian America in the 1850s. Fierce battles are waged, snowflakes and flowers dance with magic, and toys come joyfully to life in the hands of familiar characters such as Clara; her mischievous brother, Fritz; the King and Queen of the glorious Land of Snow; the Sugar Plum Fairy; the warring Mice led by the Mouse King; the Nutcracker Prince; and the mysterious Dr. Drosselmeyer. Completing the Joffrey's dazzling production is an extravagant set design by Oliver Smith and a giant puppet designed by Kermit Love. Joffrey Co-Founder Gerald Arpino choreographed the Land of the Snow scene, which closes Act I, and the Waltz of the Flowers in Act II. The Chicago Sinfonietta will provide live musical accompaniment of Tchaikovsky's classic score.

Robert Joffrey's production of The Nutcracker, based on E.T.A. Hoffmann's early 19th century German tale, "The Nutcracker and the Mouse King," has become a Chicago holiday favorite since its first performance here in 1996. With the help of his Co-Founder and world-class choreographer Gerald Arpino, Robert Joffrey originally created his vision of The Nutcracker in 1987. The Nutcracker tradition took hold in America following George Balanchine's 1954 reinvention of the original production choreographed by Marius Petipa, but his and other following productions retained a European setting. Robert Joffrey was the first choreographer to set the ballet in an American home, populated with toys from his own childhood in the opening party scene. The curtains rose on The Joffrey Ballet's The Nutcracker on December 10, 1987 at the Hancher Auditorium at the University of Iowa, with the production then embarking on a national tour. Since then, The Joffrey Ballet has maintained the most tour dates of any major ballet company in the country so that the beloved Nutcracker can be brought to the homes of children across the country.

The Joffrey continues its tradition of being joined on stage by almost 120 young dancers from all over the Chicago area, Indiana and Wisconsin. In addition, young vocalists from the Providence-St. Mel School Choir, the Oak Park and River Forest Children's Choir and the Barrington Children's Choir will perform the choral parts from Tchaikovsky's magical "snow scene." The choirs will also delight audiences with popular seasonal selections in the Auditorium Theatre's main lobby one half-hour prior to curtain and during intermissions at every performance.