Photo by Martha Swope [30/50] Counting down 50 NYCB Nutcrackers this year with stories from NYCB dancers past and present! Today we hear...

“Like thousands of little girls of my generation, I was captivated with the book ‘A Very Young Dancer,’ by Jill Krementz, which follows...

[25/50] Counting down 50 NYCB Nutcrackers this year with stories from NYCB dancers past and present! Today we hear from Sandra Jennings...

[11/52] Counting down 52 NYCB Nutcrackers this year with stories from NYCB dancers past and present! Today we hear from Suzy Pilarre, a...

(46/50) Sheryl Ware as lead Marzipan. Elise Ingalls and Lisa de Ribére. Photo by Martha Swope, 1977.

(30/50) Sara Leland, Carol Sumner & Suki Schorer in Marzipan. Photo by Fred Fehl, 1960. Harry Ransom Center

(4/50) You may (or may not) know that Janet Reed danced lead Marzipan in 1954 when Balanchine's Nutcracker premiered...but she wasn't the...

[49/50] Suzy Pilarre recently reached out to me to share her history with the Nutcracker: "In 1958, at 10 I was brought to SAB by Melissa...

[22/50] “Kay Mazzo uses space in a surprisingly large and generous way for such a delicate girl” — The Village Voice, 1969 Kay Mazzo in...

[7/50] Allegra Kent on the first season of Balanchine's Nutcracker: "I was only a mouse and a shepherdess. I longed to be Dewdrop and do...

Suki Schorer remembers her experience with the should-sits in the Grand Pas de Deux: With Sugar Plum, Mr. B said, “Don’t get sweet.” I...

Show 29. The only Nutcracker picture I can find of Rosemary Dunleavy, shown here as lead Marzipan. A company member for 10 years,...

Janet Reed as Marzipan in the Nutcracker Frederick Melton, 1954. NYPL