The charleston ballet and the wvso present the 10th anniversary performances of tchaikovsky's holiday favorite

The only local nutcracker with a full live orchestra!
 

The WVSO and The Charleston Ballet presents The Nutcracker on December 14 at 7:30 p.m. and December 15 at 2:00 p.m. and 7:30 p.m. at The Clay Center for the Arts and Sciences. These performances will feature over seventy-five local dancers and guest artists from The Charleston Ballet ,Kim Pauley, Artistic Director, accompanied by the WVSO under the direction of Maestro Grant Cooper.

This production is the only one in the area with a full live orchestra - a one-of-a-kind experience for local audiences! Tickets start at $22 for adults and $10 for children and are available through the Clay Center Box Office, 304-561-3570. Tickets may also be ordered online by using this link.

The Nutcracker features a number of distinguished guest artists. Olivier Wecxsteen, a former principal dancer with Les Grands Ballets Canadiens and Boston Ballet, will dance the role of Drosselmeyer. Sonia Rodriguez and Piotr Stanczyk, principal dancers with the National Ballet of Canada, will perform the Cavalier and Sugar Plum Fairy. Additional guests include Damien Highfield, with Oleksandr Vykhrest, Thomas Bettin, and Matthew Waters from Columbia Classical Ballet in South Carolina. Local artist Ted Brightwell will appear as Mother Ginger, Rhiannon Turley will be dancing the role of Clara, and students from the American Academy Ballet will join artists of The Charleston Ballet to complete a wonderful cast.

The Nutcracker is sponsored by Appalachian Power and Steptoe & Johnson PLLC.
 

Wanna know more to impress your friends?

Test your knowledge. See below about the History of Nutcrackers.

The nutcracker story actually began with the creation of European nutcrackers in Switzerland, France, Germany, Northern Italy, and England with the earliest from the 14th century. The clever miner/wood carvers came up with the idea of designing their ‘nutcracker dolls’ to resemble powerful people like kings, policemen, and soldiers. The townspeople enjoyed the caricatures of their rulers because they were placed at their service to perform the lowly task of cracking nuts.

Nutcrackers were especially popular with Germans, who coined the phrase, “God gives the nuts but we have to crack them ourselves.” The story was intended to teach children that life was hard but rewarding.

When Tchaikovsky’s ballet, The Nutcracker Suite, premiered in St. Petersburg in 1892, a passion for these fascinating nutcracker creatures was ignited. The ballet opened in St. Petersburg on December 17, 1892 and the original production was not an overwhelming success.

Tchaikovsky wrote The Nutcracker in record time: he had started work on the music in mid-February 1891 and he had completed it towards the end of June. Of the four months he spent on his work, the periods from March 6 to 13 and from April 5 to the end of May should be excluded. The composer was busy with other work at the time. In fact, he composed the ballet in a mere two months!