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

Counting down 52 NYCB Nutcrackers this year with stories from NYCB dancers past and present! Today we hear from Robert LaFosse, who was...

(49/50) Jacques d'Amboise and Allegra Kent (visible in the back, Paul Mejia as the Prince). Photo by Fred Fehl, 1961. Harry Ransom Center

(47/50) Kay Mazzo and Sean Lavery. Photo by Martha Swope, 1977.

(42/50) If my math is correct, this would be Darci Kistler's Sugar Plum debut at age 16! With Ib Andersen. Photos by Fred Fehl, 1980....

(37/50) Maria Tallchief on the preparation for the first Nutcracker: “As usual, he created the pas de deux for André and me with a...

(35/50) Violette Verdy and Jonathan Watts. Photos by Fred Fehl, 1959. Harry Ransom Center. (36/50) Violette and Conrad Ludlow. Photos by...

(34/50) Peter Martins warming up on stage, photo by Martha Swope.

(31/50) Gelsey Kirkland & Helgi Tomasson. Photos by Martha Swope, 1974.

(27/50) Patricia McBride and Edward Villella in the Nutcracker Pas de Deux. This was filmed in the August of 1969 at Jacob's Pillow. Stay...

(26/50) I’m very inspired by all the family legacies in this company. I was able to find at least 10 instances of dancers whose children...

(18/50) A very young Gelsey Kirkland as an angel, a party child, and a Polichinelle! (top Upstage center. Fred Fehl, 1963. Upstage, last...

(14/50) “I can remember very well,” Ms. Tallchief says, “standing downstage on opening night toward the end of the first act, before I...

(13/50) “Diana Adams as the Sugar Plum Fairy is a vision of beauty, The act opens, in this version, with her variations from the grand...

[45/50] *This photo is of Merrill Ashley as Sugar Plum, but the story is about Dew Drop. [After recovering from a hip injury] My thoughts...

[43/50] We are nearing the finale of this Nutcracker season! Edward Villella and Patricia McBride in the finale. Martha Swope, 1968.

[44/50] Of Mimi Paul, Clive Barnes wrote: “Her musicality was precise and yet not so precise as to be ungracious, her manner was regal...

[28/50] This is Part 1 of a 3-part post for our 3-show day. These posts share Maria Tallchief's experience with the Grand Pas de Deux...

[26/50] A journal entry from Jacques d'Amboise, December 11, 1954: "Karinska told me a friend asked her what she had put in the costumes...

[19/50] "Balanchine’s pas de deux is one of the greatest of all time, so elegant, so fluid. Dance on this level is intellect without...