The 21st Annual production of The Nutcracker will be presented by Ballet Arts, Inc. at 7 p.m. on Saturday, Dec. 14 and at 2 p.m. on Sunday, Dec. 15 at the Carl Perkins Civic Center in Jackson, Tenn.

The number of performers in the production easily exceeds one hundred. The three guest artists will be from New York with the remaining dancers representing numerous towns from the West Tennessee area.

Dancers from the New York Ballet Company include Yuonne Borree as the Sugar Plum Fairy and Nikolaj Hubbe as Her Cavalier. Also from New York City, dancer Eric Hoisington will be the Snow King and from Jackson, Mary Schonebachlar will be His Snow Queen.

The famous part of Clara will be danced by local company dancer, Sarah Purcell of Jackson with the role of the Nutcracker Prince being danced by local company dancer Jimmy Joyner of Milan, Tenn.

Ballet Arts, Inc., the organization producing the event, supports over seventy company members from across the West Tenn. and the Mid-South area.

These dancers represent several area dance studios and are highly trained and exceptionally talented performers.

Many former dancers with Ballet Arts, Inc. have gone to dance with well-known dance companies across the country.

Ballet Arts, Inc., Jackson’s only dance company, has been bringing various famous ballet performances to the West Tenn area for over thirty years.

The company currently produces two shows a year bringing in professional dancers from prestigious dance companies such as the New York City Ballet.

It takes hundreds of volunteers behind the scenes to get this non-profit show off the ground. The head costume designer, Kaye Fox says that her crew of seamstresses, put in forty to fifty hours a week each, getting the over 1000 separate costume pieces ready for the dancers.

The Nutcracker, originally debuted on Dec. 17, 1982, in the Mariinksy Theatre in Russia by the Kirov Ballet.

The Mariinsky Theatre is still the home of the Kirov Ballet and they continue to perform The Nutcracker just as they originally did with a cast that includes their top ballet students, just as Ballet Arts, Inc. production does today.

Tickets to Ballet Arts, Inc. production of the 21st Annual Nutcracker can be purchased at the door or by calling Special Occasions at 731-668-3240.