42 YEARS OF THE LONG BEACH NUTCRACKER

By Gina Valencia

If there is one holiday tradition I cannot miss, it’s The Long Beach Nutcracker. My daughter Audrey will make sure of it. I’ve been taking her to this beautiful ballet since she was 3 years old. Now as a 13-year-old, Audrey still looks forward to the spectacular that is Southern California’s most magical performance of this beloved holiday classic. “The costumes, the music, the choreography,” she said. “I love everything about it. It’s a tradition!” 

When the pandemic kept the stage dark, she and I consoled ourselves by watching The Nutcracker movies and listening to Tchaikovsky’s suite over and over during the season. Once it returned, you better believe we were there!

Now in its 42nd season, The Long Beach Nutcracker, under the leadership of the Long Beach Ballet’s Artistic Director and choreographer David Wilcox, continues to delight audiences throughout the globe. It has been seen by “over one million people at the Long Beach Terrace Theater, the Pasadena Civic Auditorium, the Dorothy Chandler Pavilion, throughout the Asian continent, as well as on television,” as stated on their website. 

With a cast of over 200 performers, a live horse, a flying sleigh, on-stage pyrotechnics, and a full symphony orchestra, the production plucks the strings of two harps to ensure an authentic performance of Tchaikovsky’s most famous musical composition.

“Even people who aren’t interested in ballet still like this production,” David said. 

Telling A Story Through Dance: David Wilcox

The Southern California native grew up in the musical theater world, literally toddling around the stage during rehearsals while his pianist mother played for local theater companies. Both of David’s parents were aspiring opera singers, and at the age of 11 he was “made to take ballet.” 

“I loved performing,” David said. “But I was more interested in choreography and in classical music. I remember very clearly one day while taking a shower, visualizing a dance in my mind. I was always trying to figure out how to tell a story through dance.” 

David’s creativity and imaginative gift led him to produce and direct nine ballet tours to Asia, making him the only American choreographer to be invited to China for performances throughout that country. 

But before his international and local success, David wasn’t always sure he wanted to continue with the ballet world. After becoming a professional dancer at 19 in Germany with the Berlin Ballet and getting the “soul sucked out of” him through the culture’s stringent hold on artists, David quit dance upon returning stateside. 

Eventually his old ballet instructor who ran the Audrey Share School of Dance, after years of pursuing him to take over the school, convinced him that he was the right person to continue teaching future generations of dancers the art of classical ballet. Now renamed the Long Beach Classical Ballet Academy & Performing Company, it is the only school in the city dedicated strictly to this timeless art form.  

Dance and music are certainly Wilcox family traits. David’s eldest daughter is a stage manager, his middle daughter a ballet dancer with the company, and his youngest daughter, a flautist and composer. Megan, the ballet dancer, had been dancing since she was five and when she decided to quit for a year, David completely understood. Eventually she missed it so much, she gladly returned. She earned the spot of the Sugar Plum dancer in last year’s Nutcracker production.

“I love [ballet] even more,” Megan said after taking a yearlong break from dance. 

And for those of us who have been enjoying this cherished tradition, we love it too! 

JOIN IN THE TRADITION!

Only seven performances beginning December 14th! Purchase tickets at longbeachnutcracker.com or in-person at the Terrace Theater box office at 300 E. Ocean Blvd (box office is off of Seaside Way).