Excellent dancing and a novel retelling of a holiday favorite made this performance a pleasure to watch. Although minor changes were made to the story, the core of this ballet still rings true-a young girl receives a much loved Nutcracker and dreams of a magical land. The second act had a bit of circus overtone, which I wasn't fond of, but young children and non-ballet aficionados will likely enjoy it. The dancing was very good all around, though the male dancers outshone the ladies, in my opinion. The Jester and Snow King were standouts. The young lady playing Clara was also very endearing and expressive. This staging did an adequate job of including the young dancers from local schools while keeping the focus on the story and professional dancers.