Ever since Christmas Eve 1944, when San Francisco Ballet staged the first complete “Nutcracker,” the company has had an indelible association with the holiday favorite set to Tchaikovsky’s enchanting music that ballet-goers, particularly children, adore.
The Helgi Tomasson-choreographed production onstage Dec. 13-30 at the War Memorial Opera House this year includes special sensory- and family-friendly performances, a benefit luncheon event and new school-time stagings of the classic.
While SF Ballet has long provided free and subsidized tickets for Bay Area K-12 schoolchildren to experience their first ballet performance at the War Memorial — more than 5,000 on field trips attend annually — free or deeply discounted tickets for full-length “Nutcrackers” for K-12 classes at 11 a.m. on Dec. 14 and Dec. 19 mark a new overture from the company for 3,000 kids.
SF Ballet and the San Francisco Unified School District’s joint Dance in Schools & Communities program since 1979 has offered free dance classes and special curriculum for elementary school audiences. The idea for the inaugural schooltime “Nutcracker” arose after the ballet invited elementary SFUSD students to a dress rehearsal last fall, according to Jasmine Yep Huynh, SF Ballet’s associate director of education.
“We had overwhelmingly positive responses from both the kids in the audience as well as teachers and chaperones, artists onstage, and backstage crew that we were able to reimagine how we can make ‘Nutcracker’ more accessible to our community,” Huynh says.
A sensory-friendly performance at 11 a.m. Dec. 30 provides a relaxed environment for children and adults with autism, sensory input disorders, sensory sensitivities or other physical, cognitive or developmental disabilities to enjoy the show in a safe, comfortable atmosphere.
Efforts to make neuro-diverse audiences welcome at “Nutcracker” have origins from 2015, when Autism Society San Francisco Bay Area, College of Adaptive Arts and Autism Fun Bay Area asked if the company could create a dance experience with such patrons in mind.
In December 2015, at a pilot sensory-friendly movement “Nutcracker”-themed workshop in San Francisco Ballet’s studios, participants took dance classes, made props and tried on costumes, and interacted with professional dancers. Then, from 2016-19, the company offered sensory-friendly dress rehearsals, which were disrupted by the pandemic, temporarily replaced by Zoom workshops.
The first performance of “Nutcracker” dedicated to neuro-diverse audiences in 2022 was a rousing success.
“Last year we had a full house of over 2,200 audience members,” Huynh says. “It was really wonderful to see the response from the audience but also the dancers onstage, the musicians in the orchestra pit, the crew, the heads of light and sound — to bring our arts community together in such a powerful, transformative way is really special.”
The experience also was notable for principal dancer Sasha De Sola, who has been in “Nutcracker” since she joined SF Ballet as an apprentice in 2006.
“The excitement and energy was palpable, and I felt very privileged to share the magic of ‘Nutcracker,’ presumably for the first time, with many of the young and older audience members alike,” De Sola says.
De Sola, who has performed “just about every role” over 18 seasons of “Nutcracker,” including a snowflake, the Arabian divertissement and the Sugarplum Fairy, which she’ll reprise along with the Ballerina this year — varies her outlook and fine-tunes preparation from season to season.
“I try to bring something new in my roles every year that I perform them; whether it’s a change in physicality and dynamic, finding new ways to hear and dance to the music, or deepening my understanding of the character, there’s always something new to discover,” De Sola explains. “For me, the rehearsal process is for experimentation and refining what I want to bring to the role.”
SF Ballet’s “Nutcracker” season also is significant for Alexandra Newman, a ballet Board of Trustees member and, for the second year, chair of “Nutcracker Benefit Luncheon: Land of Dreams.” The party starts at noon Dec. 16 in Zellerbach Rehearsal Hall on Franklin Street in San Francisco (which will transform into a wonderland where guests enjoy a meal, treats, crafts and activities, character appearances and additional surprises) and is followed by a matinee “Nutcracker” performance at the War Memorial from private box or front center orchestra seats. Event proceeds (last year raised $541,000) support the ballet’s education, training and community programs, including DISC.
Newman, a San Francisco native and former dancer in SF Ballet’s corps de ballet (for eight years), went to see “Nutcracker” when she was 3. It was a formative experience.
“My mom bought box seats for herself, my grandma and me, and her mother said, ‘That’s crazy, why would you ever spend so much money to bring a 3-year-old? She’s not going to be able to sit still that long, and she’s too young,’” Newman says. “And I leaned off the edge of the box, put my head on my hands and sat with my eyes wide open, mesmerized for the entire performance, and I turned to my mom and said, ‘I want to do that, that’s what I want to be.’ And I wanted to be a ballerina since that moment.”
By the time she was 18, she was performing in “Nutcracker” and did 30 shows a year every season she was in the SF Ballet corps.
Last year, she brought her 3-year-old son Liam to “Nutcracker,” a performance she says mesmerized him as much as it did her many years earlier.
“There is something about ‘Nutcracker’ that it really is that perfect introduction for children, to the magic of the holiday spirit; it’s got all these different characters, and children onstage they can relate to, and it just hooks you in,” Newman says.
San Francisco Ballet’s “Nutcracker” runs Dec. 13-30 at the War Memorial Opera House. 301 Van Ness Ave., San Francisco. For tickets ($25-$398) and information about special programming, call (415) 865-2000 or visit sfballet.org.
Correction: A previous version of this story had an incorrect spelling of Jasmine Yep Huynh and location of the benefit luncheon. We regret the errors.