Experience the Endless Magic of Opening Weekend at The Nutcracker!
Friday, December 6 - Sunday, December 8
Guests of all ages will be treated to delight-filled pre-show experiences including:
Dress your best to capture this memory with family and friends.
Enjoy feats of whimsical enchantment performed by our roving magician, Drosselmeyer.
Join Clara and her Nutcracker for pre-show fun, designed especially for our youngest audience members. Take a picture with Clara, enjoy our other themed “selfie station,” be creative in our coloring station, and catch a glimpse of other characters on parade through the lobbies.
All events are FREE and PRE-SHOW ONLY so arrive early to enjoy and the fun and magical memories we have in store for you!
You’ll want to make Opening Weekend at The Nutcracker a family tradition!
CHOREOGRAPHY | Stephen Mills
MUSIC | Pyotr Ilyich Tchaikovsky
COSTUMES | Judanna Lynn
SCENIC DESIGN | Holly Highfill
LIGHTING DESIGN | Tony Tucci
Waltz into the winter season with the spectacular 62nd annual presentation of The Nutcracker…the longest-running production of this holiday classic in the state of Texas!
Join us for this timeless story of a young girl, Clara, as she follows her dream-inspired adventures through a twinkling winter wonderland to the Court of the Sugar Plum Fairy. Featuring exquisite costumes and astonishing sets, enjoy the artistry of a cast of more than one hundred artists on stage. With live accompaniment by the Austin Symphony Orchestra, Tchaikovsky’s timeless score comes to life with music and choreography sure to warm the season and create lasting magical memories!
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including two 50-minute acts with a 20-minute intermission
Why we recommend purchasing directly from Ballet Austin
Please visit our FAQs page for information about parking, discounts, and more.
Ballet Austin strives to share the excitement and beauty of live professional dance with as many community members as possible. *As a 501c3 nonprofit organization, Ballet Austin raises funds throughout the year to help defray part of the production costs in order to bring live performances to you and keep the price of our tickets as low as possible. The following information is intended to assist you as a consumer and help you have the best experience possible.
When you purchase directly from Ballet Austin:
- You are assured your tickets are valid, and your seats are reserved for you/your family/your party.
- You have access to the most affordable ticket prices.* Ballet Austin tickets can range between $20 – $125 dollars, depending on location. If you are being asked to pay more per ticket, you are NOT buying from Ballet Austin.
- You have the flexibility to exchange your ticket
/s to another performance for a small handling fee, as tickets remain available.
If you choose to purchase Ballet Austin tickets from sources other than Ballet Austin, we recommend that you:
- Never pay cash or use apps such as Venmo to purchase tickets.
- Verify performance dates/times and check for sold-out performances BEFORE purchasing from a third-party seller or service by visiting the Ballet Austin website.
- Check the Long Center’s Dell Hall seating map to confirm the existence of the seats being offered to you.
NOTE: Issues related to tickets purchased from a third-party seller will need to be discussed with that company. Ballet Austin will have no record of these sales.
Our goal for each Ballet Austin performance is to create wonderful, lasting memories for you, your family, and your friends. If you have questions, let us help you by contacting our box office at 512.476.2163 or by email at boxoffice@balletaustin.org. We look forward to seeing you soon.
View Cast List
This year’s Mother Ginger cast list includes:
Thursday, Dec. 5 at 7:30 p.m.: Quincy Dunlap, President and CEO, Austin Area Urban League 1Night of Community is sponsored by the Austin Community Foundation, the Reaud Charitable Foundation and the Seawell Elam Foundation. Night of Community is endowed in part by Sarah and Ernest Butler through the Ballet Austin Foundation.
Friday, Dec. 6 at 7:30 p.m.: Dewitt Pert, CEO, Downtown Austin Alliance
Saturday, Dec. 7 at 2 p.m.: Lisa Davis, Chief of Police, Austin Police Department
Saturday, Dec. 7 at 7:30 p.m.: Madeline Hollern, Editor-in-Chief, Austin Monthly
Sunday, Dec. 8 at 2 p.m.: Néstor Ho, Chief Legal Officer, Silicon Labs
Friday, Dec. 13 at 7:30 p.m.: John-Carlos Estrada, News Anchor, CBS Austin
Saturday, Dec. 14 at 2 p.m.: Kaitlyn Wilkins, Vice President and Austin Head of Office, Meta
Saturday, Dec. 14 at 7:30 p.m.: Leslie Pool, Mayor Pro Tem, Austin City Council
Sunday, Dec. 15 at 2 p.m.: Chris Bosh, NBA Hall of Famer
Wednesday, Dec. 18 at 7:30 p.m.: Will Matthews, Commercial Banker, Sideline Reporter and Lifetime Longhorn
Thursday, Dec. 19 at 7:30 p.m.: Dr. Russell Lowery-Hart, Chancellor, Austin Community College District
Friday, Dec. 20 at 2 p.m.: Mason Ayer, CEO, Kerbey Lane All Day Café
Saturday, Dec. 21 at 2 p.m.: Veronica McDonald, Finance Director, Wife, Mother and Ballet Lover
Saturday, Dec. 21 at 7:30 p.m.: Heidi Anderson, Senior Director of Public Affairs, H-E-B Central Texas
Sunday, Dec. 22 at 2 p.m.: Sly Majid, Government Affairs Manager, Volkswagen ADMT and President of the Ballet Austin Board of Directors
Monday, Dec. 23 at 2 p.m.: Dr. Kristi Kirk, President and CEO, Concordia University Texas
VIDEO GALLERY
Videos by Paul Michael Bloodgood & Jazz Collins
PHOTO GALLERY
Photos by Anne Marie Bloodgood
ENJOY THE AUDIENCE ACTIVITIES
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Footlights is your pre-show behind-the-scenes look into what you’ll see when the curtain goes up!
Learn about the production as members of the Ballet Austin Education staff share the stories and inspiration behind the work.
FREE for all Ticket Holders
Length of program: Approximately 15 minutes
Footlights Sponsor
Ballet Austin’s self-guided, interactive, discovery zone featuring all you want to know … before the show!
Backstage Pass! is our interactive discovery lounge (like a walk-through pop-up museum) hosted by Ballet Austin’s Education Department. It has multiple stations that include everything from pointe shoes, costumes, music, and more!
It has multiple stations that include everything from pointe shoes, costumes, music, and more! Backstage Pass! changes for every production, so even if you’ve been before, be sure to visit again!
FREE for all Ticket Holders
Backstage Pass! Sponsor
Commemorate a fun day at the ballet at any of our photo stations! Be sure to tag us @BalletAustin and use #HeartsDesireATX!
Encore is a post-show conversation that gives the audience the opportunity to ask questions directly to Artistic Director Stephen Mills and invited artists.
Hosted by Ballet Austin’s Education Department, audience members can either listen from their seats, or make their way to the Orchestra section if they have a question for the artists. Microphones will be set up in the Orchestra level aisles for a Q&A between audience members and the artists of the production.
FREE for all Ticket Holders
MEET THE ARTISTS
STEPHEN
MILLS
Choreography
Desire
Known for his innovative and collaborative choreographic projects, Stephen Mills has created over 60 premieres for Ballet Austin and has works in the repertoires of companies across the United States and around the world.
His inaugural season as artistic director in 2000 attracted national attention with his world-premiere production of Hamlet, hailed by Dance Magazine as “… sleek and sophisticated.” The Washington Post recognized Ballet Austin as “one of the nation’s best kept ballet secrets” in 2004 after Mills’ world premiere of The Taming of the Shrew, commissioned by and performed at the John F. Kennedy Center for the Performing Arts in Washington, D.C. The Company’s first Kennedy Center invitation in January of 2002 was to perform Mills’ A Midsummer Night’s Dream. Ballet Austin presented a variety of Mills’ works at The Joyce Theater (NYC) in 2005 and returned to the Kennedy Center in collaboration with The Suzanne Farrell Ballet in 2008 and for the Ballet Across America Festival in 2013.
In 2005 after two years of extensive research, Mills led a communitywide human rights collaboration that culminated in the world premiere work Light / The Holocaust & Humanity Project (Light). In 2006 Light was awarded the Audrey & Raymond Maislin Humanitarian Award by the Anti-Defamation League. The work made its international debut in September 2013, with performances in three cities across Israel and is the subject of the award-winning documentary film, FINDING LIGHT. In October 2016, Mills led the company through a 16-city tour of the People’s Republic of China, concluding in China’s largest city, Shanghai.
PYOTR ILYICH TCHAIKOVSKY
Music
Pyotr Ilyich Tchaikovsky
(1840–1893)
Pyotr Ilyich Tchaikovsky is widely considered the most popular Russian composer in history. His work includes the ‘The Sleeping Beauty’ and ‘The Nutcracker.’
Who Was Tchaikovsky?
Composer Pyotr Ilyich Tchaikovsky’s work was first publicly performed in 1865. In 1868, his First Symphony was well-received. In 1874, he established himself with Piano Concerto No.1 in B-flat Minor. Tchaikovsky resigned from the Moscow Conservatory in 1878 and spent the rest of his career composing yet more prolifically. Tchaikovsky is most celebrated for his ballets, specifically Swan Lake, The Sleeping Beauty and The Nutcracker. He died in St. Petersburg on November 6, 1893.
Early Life
Russian composer Pyotr Ilyich Tchaikovsky was born on May 7, 1840, in Kamsko-Votkinsk, Vyatka, Russia. He was the second eldest of his parents’ six surviving offspring. Tchaikovsky’s father, Ilya, worked as a mine inspector and metal works manager.
When he was just five years old, Tchaikovsky began taking piano lessons. Although he displayed an early passion for music, his parents hoped that he would grow up to work in the civil service. At the age of 10, Tchaikovsky began attending the Imperial School of Jurisprudence, a boarding school in St. Petersburg. His mother, Alexandra, died of cholera in 1854, when he was 14 years old. In 1859, Tchaikovsky honored his parents’ wishes by taking up a bureau clerk post with the Ministry of Justice — a post he would hold for four years, during which time he became increasingly fascinated with music.
When he was 21, Tchaikovsky decided to take music lessons at the Russian Musical Society. A few months later, he enrolled at the newly founded St. Petersburg Conservatory, becoming one of the school’s first composition students. In addition to learning while at the conservatory, Tchaikovsky gave private lessons to other students. In 1863, he moved to Moscow, where he became a professor of harmony at the Moscow Conservatory.
Tchaikovsky’s Compositions
Operas
Pyotr Tchaikovsky’s work was first publicly performed in 1865, with Johann Strauss the Younger conducting Tchaikovsky’s Characteristic Dances at a Pavlovsk concert. In 1868, Tchaikovsky’s First Symphony was well-received when it was publicly performed in Moscow. The following year, his first opera, The Voyevoda, made its way to the stage — with little fanfare.
After scrapping The Voyevoda, Tchaikovsky repurposed some of its material to compose his next opera, Oprichnik, which achieved some acclaim when it was performed at the Maryinsky in St. Petersburg in 1874. By this time, Tchaikovsky had also earned praise for his Second Symphony. Also in 1874, his opera, Vakula the Smith, received harsh critical reviews, yet Tchaikovsky still managed to establish himself as a talented composer of instrumental pieces with his Piano Concerto No.1 in B-flat Minor.
From ‘Swan Lake’ to ‘The Nutcracker’ Ballets
Acclaim came readily for Tchaikovsky in 1875, with his composition Symphony No. 3 in D Major. At the end of that year, the composer embarked on a tour of Europe. In 1876, he completed the ballet Swan Lake as well as the fantasy Francesca da Rimini. While the former has come to be one of the most frequently performed ballets of all time, Tchaikovsky again endured the ire of critics, who at its premiere panned it as too complex and too “noisy.”
Tchaikovsky resigned from the Moscow Conservatory in 1878 to focus his efforts entirely on composing. As a result, he spent the remainder of his career composing more prolifically than ever. His collective body of work constitutes 169 pieces, including symphonies, operas, ballets, concertos, cantatas and songs. Among his most famed late works are the ballets The Sleeping Beauty (1890) and The Nutcracker (1892).
Personal Life
Struggling with societal pressures to repress his homosexuality, in 1877, Tchaikovsky married a young music student named Antonina Milyukova. The marriage was a catastrophe, with Tchaikovsky abandoning his wife within weeks of the wedding. During a nervous breakdown, he unsuccessfully attempted to commit suicide, and eventually fled abroad.
Tchaikovsky could afford to resign from the Moscow Conservatory in 1878, thanks to the patronage of a wealthy widow named Nadezhda von Meck. She provided him with a monthly allowance until 1890; oddly, their arrangement stipulated that they would never meet.
Death
Tchaikovsky died in St. Petersburg on November 6, 1893. While the cause of his death was officially declared as cholera, some of his biographers believe that he committed suicide after the humiliation of a sex scandal trial. However, only oral (no written) documentation exists to support this theory.
Biography courtesy of biography.com.
JUDANNA LYNN
Costumes
Judanna Lynn has designed costumes for most of the major dance companies in the United States including New York City Ballet, Milwaukee Ballet, Pittsburgh Ballet Theatre and the Philadelphia Ballet. Other credits include the costumes for Ballet de Santiago, Festival of the Lion King, for the opening of Disney’s Theme Park in Hong Kong; Houston Ballet’s highly acclaimed productions of Don Quixote, Dracula and Cleopatra; the musical Lyle for Charles Strouse; The Hartford Stage/Old Globe Theatre’s production of Tintypes; the musicals Once On This Island for the Children’s Theatre Company of Minneapolis, Hats! and Tin Pan Alley Rag for the Cleveland Playhouse.
Judanna formerly danced with San Francisco Opera Ballet and was a resident costume designer of The Juilliard School. She is also a painter whose work has been seen at the Rizzoli and Miniatura Galleries in New York City, the Philadelphia Museum of Fine Art and in private collections.
HOLLY HIGHFILL
Scenic Design
Holly Highfill has designed sets for ballets, operas, and plays in the Washington area and throughout the country. She has been the principal scenic artist for most of these productions, and she has also painted scenery for numerous theater companies and scenery producers. In addition to theater work Ms Highfill has also done several large museum projects, designing and painting murals and other artwork for the National Air and Space Museum, the National Museum of the American Indian, the Audubon Society’s Corkscrew Swamp Sanctuary in Florida, and the Robinson Nature Center in Howard County, Maryland. Ms. Highfill has MFAs in Painting and Scenic Design from the University of Wisconsin and a BA in Art History from Bryn Mawr College. She is a member of United Scenic Artists Local 829 as a scene designer and scenic artist.
TONY TUCCI
Lighting Design
Tony Tucci has been resident lighting designer for Ballet Austin’s repertory, for 34 years, lighting designer/director for Ben Stevenson’s Texas Ballet Theater and Bruce Wood Dance. Recently designed Flemming Flindt’s Phaedra Ballet for the Mariinsky Theatre in Vladivostok Russia. Tucci created the lighting designs for Bernstein’s Mass at the Long Center in June 2018. In September 2018, Tucci designed a new production of Cinderella, choreographed by Ben Stevenson for the National Ballet of China. Tucci and has created designs for national and international dance companies: Washington Ballet, Houston Dance Salad, Pittsburgh Ballet Theatre, Colorado Ballet, Cincinnati Ballet, Ballet West, Cirque Ziva-Golden Dragon Acrobats, Royal Danish Ballet, Winnipeg and Swedish Ballets, Hong Kong Ballet, Singapore Dance Theatre, Ballet Contemporaneo de Caracas, Christopher Bruce’s Kingdom- Geneva Ballet, Flemming Flindt’s Caroline Mathilde and Lucifer’s Daughter-Royal Danish Ballet. Tucci has designed for musical theater, including Austin productions of Damn Yankees, Carousel, West Side Story, Annie, Gypsy, Jesus Christ Superstar, Music Man, Oklahoma, A Chorus Line, Carousel and Sound of Music as well as Charles Duggan’s productions of Dames at Sea in San Francisco and at the Goodspeed Opera House. For 1996 Summer Olympics, Tucci designed for the Cultural Olympiad, showcasing national and international companies. He is the recipient of two Iden Payne Awards and Critics Table awards for lighting in Austin.
Enjoy the benefits of attending The Nutcracker as a season ticket holder.
2 SHOWS
10% discount
3 SHOWS
15% discount
4 SHOWS
20% discount
5 SHOWS
20% discount
*Additional ticket discounts are based on your package discount (2-show package receives a 10% discount, 3-show package receives a 15% discount, 4-show and 5-show packages receive a 20% discount, up to 8 tickets per production).
SEPT. 27-29
FEB. 14-16
MAR. 28-30
MAY 9-11
THANK YOU TO OUR SPONSORS
Endowed in part by the generosity of the Kuglen Foundation – Dr. & Mrs. Craig C. Kuglen—through the Ballet Austin Foundation