Celebrate the holidays with New Jersey Ballet as it presents The Nutcracker at the Mayo Performing Arts Center. This first rate traditional production enchants youngsters and grown-ups alike with splendid dancing, a live orchestra, eye-popping special effects and a touch of holiday magic.

Background:
For more than 50 years, New Jersey Ballet has thrilled audiences from Bergen to Cape May. During its 26 week season, the troupe of 20 professional artists performs a variety of works from classical, contemporary and jazz ballet, as well as one of the largest collections of ballets for children in the country.

Over the years, the company has given hundreds of thousands of adults and children their first introduction to the magic of dance theatre and inspired in many a lifelong love of the arts. It has also taken the best of New Jersey arts to audiences in Europe and Asia. In recent years, New Jersey Ballet’s Nutcracker became the first full length classical ballet ever performed in India. A year later, the company went on a 7-city tour of Russia, which included performances in Moscow and St. Petersburg.

New Jersey Ballet is proud to be designated a Major Arts Institution by the New Jersey State Council on the Arts in recognition of its “artistic excellence, substantial programming and broad public service.” It has also won popular support as New Jersey’s Favorite Dance Company in the 2009 Jersey Arts Marketers online vote.

Barbara Gilford, dance writer for The New York Times New Jersey Weekly for more than ten years, wrote this about the impact and value New Jersey Ballet has for New Jersey.

“New Jersey Ballet Company is the ONLY dance organization in the New York metropolitan area that takes high quality programming and performances to urban, rural and suburban communities throughout New Jersey (and at a cost that is “affordable” in comparison with the major organizations in New York City who are at home at Lincoln Center). Residents of our state have access to a three hundred year-old dance tradition, frequently on their doorsteps. New Jersey Ballet is an assemblage of professional dancers who embody the highest standards of technique and artistry and they are OURS!!!”