English National Ballet’s Nutcracker

English National Ballet’s acclaimed production of Nutcracker returns to the London Coliseum this Christmas from Thursday 11 December 2014 - Sunday 4 January 2015. First performed in 2010 to celebrate English National Ballet’s 60th anniversary, Wayne Eagling’s version of the production has since been seen by over 300,000 people. This year, Nutcracker sees two of English National Ballet’s rising stars make their debuts as Clara; Katja Khaniukova who performs alongside Ken Saruhashi’s debut as the Prince and Daniele Silingardi’s debut as the Nutcracker; and Ksenia Ovsyanick who performs alongside Max Westwell’s debut as the Prince and Fabian Reimair’s Nutcracker. Further Principal dancers include Alina Cojocaru as Clara, Alejandro Virelles as Prince, winner of the 2014 Emerging Dancer award Junor Souza as Prince and Nutcracker, Laurretta Summerscales as Clara, identical twins Guilherme and Vitor Menezes, both making their debuts as Prince and Nutcracker, and Artistic Director Tamara Rojo as Clara. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=KWNoaldMlLs Nutcracker has been running since the 50's. Since then, English National Ballet has established the tradition of performing Nutcracker at Christmas every year, if you don't know already, here's how the story goes: On an enchanted Christmas Eve, under the heavy boughs of the candlelit tree Clara battles with the Mouse King and falls in love with a handsome stranger. As the air grows colder and snowflakes begin to fall, Clara and her valiant Nutcracker take a hot air balloon ride across the frost-dusted London skyline to the glistening Land of Snow where her adventure really begins. In a world of Edwardian elegance, Nutcracker brings to life the popular Tchaikovsky score featuring the Dance of the Sugar Plum Fairy and Waltz of the Flowers.