Counting down 50 NYCB Nutcrackers this year with stories from NYCB dancers past and present! If you recall earlier this season I met an...

[10/52] Counting down 52 NYCB Nutcrackers this year with stories from NYCB dancers past and present! Today we hear from KJ Takahashi, a...

(40/50) “At the time, the ballet was rehearsed by Janet Reed; she was wonderful. She made everything so clear and so much fun at the same...

(20/50) "In 1958, Balanchine removed the grand pas de deux, substituting for it a dance for the Sugar Plum Fairy supported not by a...

(15/50) Shout-out to the Hoops in the second picture for a clean sous-sus! Deni Lamont and SAB students. Photos by Fred Fehl, 1959. Harry...

(10/50) “The original costumes with Karinska using her imagination…My costume was the most comfortable, wonderful costume because she had...

(11/50) “Jumping through that damn hoop at breakneck speed was not easy. I was trying to do it academically when Mr. B said, ‘Bobby, you...

[37/50] Akim Volynsky, Russian dance critic, wrote, “I must mention the great success by a still quite young [he was 18] and unusually...

[31/50] Richard Rapp as Candy Cane. Photo by Martha Swope.

[27/50] A story from Merrill Ashley's book Dancing for Balanchine (affiliate link) "At the first rehearsal, taught by Una Kai, a ballet...

[16/50] "Victor Castelli was most impressive leading the Candy Canes, his brilliant jumps through the hoop in the coda being particularly...

[5/50] “I was cast to dance the role of the Candy Cane when the ballet premiered in New York. Jumping through that damn hoop at breakneck...

Okay how cute is this: this is a dual post covering Nutcrackers 32 and 33. This post highlights brothers Joseph and Daniel Duell. (Duell...

Show 30. Victor Castelli as Candy Cane in 1974. Victor was a soloist who danced with the company for 19 years and afterward became a...

We’re back with Nutcracker week 4 and show number 22. Today I’m highlighting some beautiful corps moments from the 1985 production. I...

Nutcracker number 21 this evening and we’ve got photos of Robert Barnett who originated the Candy Cane role in Balanchine’s 1954...

(10/50) I canNOT get enough of these pics of John Prinz airborne as the Cavelier in The Nutcracker! Photos by Martha Swope, 1968. NYPL

(3/50) I love these two pictures. The exuberance in the first one! Oh how I wish I could have seen Eddie perform live! I met him briefly...