Cleveland Ballet 
The Nutcracker
Connor Palace – Playhouse Square
December 13-22, 2024

By Steve Sucato

This holiday season, Cleveland Ballet is giving area audiences something it has not seen in decades: A The Nutcracker production steeped in ballet’s tradition.

This Friday, December 13, through Sunday, December 22, at Playhouse Square’s Connor Palace, the company will debut artistic director Timour Bourtasenkov’s new The Nutcracker production.

The 2-act ballet is based on E. T. A. Hoffmann’s 1816 short story, The Nutcracker and the Mouse King, and is danced to a recorded version of Pyotr Ilyich Tchaikovsky’s iconic original score for the ballet.

Choreographed by Bourtasenkov using elements from his previous The Nutcracker productions for Ballet Hawaii, Carolina Ballet, and New Jersey Ballet, along with nods to Marius Petipa and Lev Ivanov’s 1892 original dances, and Alexander Gorsky’s 1919 production, the ballet “follows classical traditions,” says Bourtasenkov. The format of the production, however, is patterned after another famous version, George Balanchine’s universally known and ubiquitous 1954 production that features a child performer in the lead role of Clara Staubaulm. 

Bourtasenkov’s ballet replaces ousted former Cleveland Ballet artistic director Gladisa Guadalupe’s ever-evolving but imaginative and entertaining production the company performed the past eight years.  

Rather than going the route of many modern Nutcracker productions that have opted for alternative storylines and technological and geographic-centered approaches to the ballet, Bourtasenkov has stuck to old-school Nutcracker tropes in telling the story of Clara’s Christmas adventure from her late 1800s home and Christmas party through a snow forest and to the magical “Land of the Sweets” with its confectionary and hot beverage named dances and all the characters she meets along the way. 

The family-friendly production deviates slightly from established tradition with the addition of several new roles for young student dancers, including Truffles, Coffee Entourage, and Gingerbreads. Those roles are being filled by The Academy of Cleveland Ballet students and area dance students who auditioned to be in the 70-member cast.

A whopping four casts will take turns performing the scheduled eleven Nutcracker shows. Dancing the pivotal roles of the Sugar Plum Fairy (7 p.m., Dec. 13, 6 p.m., Dec. 15, and 7 p.m., Dec. 21) and the Snow Queen (7 p.m., Dec 14 & 20 and 1 p.m., Dec. 22) will be company star Svetlana Svinko.

“Snow Queen, for me, is a dance for the soul,” says Svinko. “Harder is dancing the Sugar Plum Fairy role. It has a grand pas de deux in four parts that is both technically and physically demanding.” 

With the new production comes new-to-Clevleand dazzling costumes and scenic designs from several former Carolina Ballet productions the company purchased, augmented with new costumes built in Cleveland Ballet’s costume shop.  

For fans of the United States’ most performed ballet and one of its most cherished annual holiday events, Cleveland Ballet’s new The Nutcracker production is a celebration of the ballet’s legacy and tradition and one you and your family won’t want to miss.

Cleveland Ballet performs The Nutcracker
Presented by Roe Green & Roe Green Foundation and RPM
Connor Palace at Playhouse Square
1615 Euclid Ave, Cleveland, OH 44115
Show Times:
December 13 | 10:30 AM (student matinee) & 7:00 PM
December 14 | 1:00 & 7:00 PM
December 15 | 1:00 & 6:00 PM
December 19 | 7:00 PM
December 20 | 7:00 PM
December 21 | 1:00 & 7:00 PM
December 22 | 1:00 PM
Tickets range from $30-$131 and can be purchased at playhousesquare.org or by calling (216) 241-6000. For more information, including casting visit cleveballet.org/the-nutcracker