Peninsula Ballet Theatre's Nutcracker Sweet, Hip-Hop Nutcracker, and The Nutcracker

Classical Nutcracker
San Mateo Performing Arts Center
600 North Delaware Street
San Mateo, CA
December 21, 2024, 2 p.m.
December 22, 2024 2 p.m.
$35-70, peninsulalivelyarts.org
San Mateo Performing Arts Center

Hip-Hop Nutcracker
Fox Theatre
2215 Broadway
Redwood City, CA
$70-$35, peninsulaballet.org
December 21, 2024, 2 p.m.
December 22, 2024, 2 p.m.  

Nutcracker Sweets
Peninsula Lively Arts
1880 S. Grant St.
San Mateo ​, CA
$35-45, peninsulaballet.org
December 7-8, 2024, 12:30, 2:30 & 4:30 p.m.

Prices

A cast of all-star hip-hop artists present the score and story with a contemporary flavor. Hip-Hop Nutcracker is a Holiday Mashup which mixes up traditional Nutcracker ballet with a new holiday classic!

In this version of the beloved Nutcracker ballet, Clara receives a prized wooden nutcracker during a holiday party at her Victorian home. Once she falls asleep, her dream takes her into a world with wizards, toy soldiers, mice, and a sugar plum fairy. Instead of Candy Land, Clara finds herself in a modern hip-hop land dancing with characters who don’t look or dance the way they do back home!

Sanders and Martinez dance partners mix the iconic pieces of the story and Tchaikovsky's score with some added twists and create explosive hip-hop dance. Brought to life by choreographers Alee Martinez and Issac 'Stuck' Sanders, co-founders and directors of The Tribe and Poise'n, have a rich dance and hip hop history. 

Tailored for young audiences (ages 3 to 6) and families, the Nutcracker Sweet is an abridged version of Gregory Amato's reimagining of the classic story performed by PBT Conservatory with the professional Company, presented in Studio One Theatre.

california nutcracker

Peninsula Ballet Leadership

Christine Leslie is President and Executive Director. She began performing with the professional company in 1979 in productions such as Nutcracker, Swan Lake, Sleeping Beauty, Fille Mal Guarde, Giselle, Cinderella, and Romeo & Juliet.

Gregory Amato serves as Artistic Director since 2017. He was tapped by New York City Ballet principal dancer Edward Villella to join him as a founding member of Miami City Ballet, then by Michael Smuin as a founding member of Smuin Ballet. He was featured dancer for the 100th Celebration of George Gershwin's birthday at Carnegie Hall.

Stuck Sanders, Artistic Director, has earned a reputation as a top freestyler known for Turf Dancing. In 2012 he joined Academy of Villains as principal dancer/choreographer and became one of the AOV main dance partners in The Tribe.

Gary Stanford Jr - Director Peninsula Broadway Theater Productions has appeared in over 80 musicals with theater companies around the bay. He started his own theater company, North California Arts Collective in 2019 and is on the Board of Directors for Z-Space theater (San Francisco), Throckmorton Theater (Mill Valley), ReAct Theater (Seattle), TheatreWorks Silicon Valley (Mountain View), Woodside Community Theater and Hillbarn Theater (Foster City).

Alee Martinez - Choreographer and Dance Master became one of the principle dancers for Academy of Villains and by age 21 was named assistant director.

 Peninsula Ballet Theatre presents Carlos Carvajal's Nutcracker. Set in the turn of the century in St. Petersburg, Russia, Clara and Fritz fall asleep in the drawing room after a grand holiday party and dream (or do they) of wondrous things. All of your favorite scenes – the battle between the toy soldiers let by the Nutcracker and mice let by the Rat King, The Snow Forest, and of course the Land of the Sweets. Carlos Carvajal - Director Emeritus is an internationally known choreographer of more than 200 works of ballet, opera and television, Carlos served as Peninsula Ballet Theatre Artistic Director from 1992 until his retirement in 2010. It was during those years that PBT become widely known for artistic excellence, sophisticated program and production values. It is upon that foundation that Peninsula Ballet Theatre has continued its growth and recognition as one of the few regional ballet companies that has survived and thrived for over 50 years.