The St. Louis Ballet presents 11 spectacular performances of The Nutcracker December 16th - December 23rd at the Touhill Performing Arts Center (1 University Drive, St. Louis - on the campus of UMSL). A holiday tradition in Saint Louis, The Nutcracker, with music by Peter Tchaikovsky, features the professional company's dancers accompanied by students from the Saint Louis Ballet School as well as guest performers. Tchaikovsky's classic score and artistic director Gen Horiuchi's fresh choreography contribute to the extravagant production. The Nutcracker was first performed in St. Petersburg, Russia more than 100 years ago, it is based on E.T.A. Hoffman's 1816 tale The Nutcracker and the Mouse King. Horiuchi's version, on the vast Touhill stage, incorporates spectacular effects such as glitter, smoke and pyrotechnics as well as new effects and choreography each year to make it more exciting for audiences.
Tickets can be purchased in person at the Touhill Box Office, 1 University Drive, St. Louis, MO, by phone at 314-516-4949 or at www.touhill.org. There are generous student discounts available online or at the ticket office.
Evening Performances are at 7:30pm on 12/16, 12/17, 12/20, 12/22, 12/23
Evening Performance on Sunday, 12/18 is at 7:00pm
Matinees are at 2:30pm on 12/17, 12/20, 12/22, 12/23
There is a Sugar Plum Fairy Luncheon on 12/17 and 12/18 at 12:30pm.
More about Saint Louis Ballet:
Saint Louis Ballet is the regions only professional ballet company. Under the direction of former New York City Ballet principal dancer Gen Horiuchi, its classically trained dancers are selected in a competitive national audition and come to St. Louis from training programs and ballet companies throughout the world. The company's repertoire includes full-length ballets such as Romeo & Juliet, Don Quixote and Cinderella as well as contemporary work from renowned choreographers such as George Balanchine, Christopher d'Amboise, Jessica Lang, and Michael Uthoff. In addition to a season of fully mounted productions, Saint Louis Ballet operates a ballet training program and a community outreach program.
About The Director:
Gen Horiuchi has been the artistic director of the Saint Louis Ballet Company and School since 2000. He has created over 20 original works for the company and has spearheaded the growth of the School based in Chesterfield. Raised in Tokyo, Japan by parents who were professional dancers, he won the prestigious Prix de Lausanne, the international ballet competition in Switzerland in 1980. He then received a scholarship to study at the School of American Ballet. In 1982, he was invited by George Balanchine to join the New York City Ballet, where he became a principal dancer in 1989. He's danced on Broadway in Song and Dance and was also Mr. Mistoffelees in the musical Cats, both on Broadway and in London's West End. He choreographed the opening ceremony of the Winter Olympics in Nagano, Japan in 1998. In 2004, he was honored in New York City with the Seventh Cultural Bridge Award together with Harold Prince, director of Phantom of the Opera. He has directed the Aoyama Ballet Festival in Tokyo with artists in major companies from around the world. And since 2010, he has been directing Gen Horiuchi's Ballet USA each summer in Osaka, Japan where he sets his own choreography on professional dancers and brings guests like Miyako Yoshida, former Royal Ballet principal, to dance alongside him to sold out houses.
Would you like to win a family 4 pack of tickets to see The Nutcracker presented by St. Louis Ballet at the Touhill on Tuesday, December 20th at 7:30pm?
