Photo Flash: First Look at George Balanchine's THE NUTCRACKER at NYC Ballet

New York City Ballet opened its annual season of George Balanchine's The Nutcracker, on Friday, November 29 at 8 p.m. at the David H. Koch Theater at Lincoln Center for the Performing Arts. The 2013 season of the holiday classic, sponsored for a second year by The Travelers Companies, Inc., will include 47 performances through Saturday, January 4, 2014. BroadwayWorld has a first look below!

New York City Ballet's (NYCB) acclaimed production of Balanchine's masterpiece, which premiered on February 2, 1954, helped to establish The Nutcracker and its score as perennial favorites in the United States, evident by the now countless versions of the ballet performed all over the country. NYCB's beloved production has been performed in New York City every year since its premiere, and is seen by more than 100,000 people annually.

Set to Peter Ilyitch Tschaikovsky's glorious score, George Balanchine's The NutcrackerTM features choreography by Balanchine, scenery by Rouben Ter-Arutunian, costumes by Karinska, and lighting by Mark Stanley, after the original design by Ronald Bates. The production includes the Company's entire roster of more than 150 dancers and musicians, as well as more than 125 children, in two alternating casts, from the School of American Ballet, the official school of New York City Ballet.

Highlights of this world-renowned holiday production include a one-ton Christmas tree that grows from 12 to 40 feet, an onstage snowstorm, and hundreds of elaborate costumes, including one for Mother Ginger that measures nine feet wide and weighs 85 pounds. The production's grand finale involves one million watts of lighting, the most used in any New York City Ballet production.

Tickets are currently on sale online at nycballet.com, in person at the theater box office, and by phone at (212) 496-0600. The David H. Koch Theater is located on the Lincoln Center Plaza at Columbus Avenue and 63rd Street.

Photo Credit: Paul Kolnik