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Nutcrackers abound!
The Month in Philly Dance, December 2025
Camille Bacon-Smith
December for me is the strings of colored lights swagged across Broad Street and the Christmas trees glowing in the windows of the rowhouses, and the Nutcrackers filling the theaters across the city. I’ve grouped all the Nutcrackers below to make it easy to choose, but if sugar plum fairies are not on your list, there is still plenty to see in a month packed with dance.
PHILADANCO! presents Then and Now
Friday, December 5, 7:30pm
Saturday, December 6, 2pm and 7:30pm
Sunday, December 7, 2pm
Perelman Theater, 300 South Broad Street
For Then and Now, PHILADANCO! brings back two pieces, Donald Byrd’s Everybody and DANCO artist-in-residence Tommie-Waheed Evans’ WITH(IN)VERSE, paired with newly commissioned works by long-time company favorite Ronald K. Brown and rising star Juel D. Lane. It’s one of the shows at the top of my list.
Dancefusion’s Hansel and Gretel
Saturday, December 6, 3pm and 7pm
Suzanne Roberts Theatre, 480 South Broad Street
Dancefusion presents a contemporary dance version of Hansel and Gretel’s adventures with a witch and her gingerbread house. We are promised that the witch will be rollicking in a child-friendly performance.
BalletX in Bryn Mawr
Friday, December 12, 7:30pm
Saturday, December 13, 2pm and 7:30pm
Sunday, December 14, 2pm
Goodhart Hall, Bryn Mawr College, 150 North Merion Avenue, Bryn Mawr
BalletX has a tradition of fostering up and coming choreographers both within the company and through its competitive choreographic fellowships. For its Bryn Mawr series, the company returns with Scales on the Wings of a Butterfly by 2024’s fellow, Noelle Kayser, and presents new works by 2025’s fellow Christian Denice, and company members Lanie Jackson and Itzkan Barbosa.
Momix’s Alice
Friday, December 12, 7:30pm
Saturday, December 13, 2pm and 7:30pm
Sunday, December 14, 3pm
Momix is always strange and wonderful, and Alice is no exception. The story is in there, but mostly I love this piece for the humor and sheer challenge of its strange movement. Often, the dancers seem like puppets in their fantastical set pieces of costumes.
Contemporary West Dance Theater’s Cool Yule
Friday, December 19 and Saturday, December 20, 7:30pm
Sunday, December 21, 2pm
FringeArts, 140 North Columbus Boulevard
This holiday offering takes its name from the Louis Armstrong jazz hit, Cool Yule. It’s an all-ages revue featuring waltz to jitterbug to contemporary dance, all set to the songs of the season.
So many Nutcrackers to choose from!
The Rock School’s The Enchanted Nutcracker
Thursday, December 4, 6pm
Saturday and Sunday, December 6 and 7, 11:30am and 4pm
The Miller Theater, 250 South Broad Street
Clara is still the hero of her own story in the Enchanted Nutcracker, and the production has kept Tchaikovsky’s score, the sparkle, and the dancing mice, but trimmed the run-time to one hour for an all-ages sensory-friendly experience.
Philadelphia Ballet’s The Nutcracker
Friday, December 5 through Wednesday, December 31, times vary
Academy of Music, 240 South Broad Street
The Philadelphia Ballet’s glittering fantasy has been a beloved family tradition for over 55 years, and it never seems to lose its luster. In this Nutcracker, a Christmas tree grows before our eyes, and snowflakes flit across the stage to the most iconic music in all of dance.
Chris Davis’s One-Man Nutcracker
Tuesday, December 9 through Wednesday, January 5
The Proscenium at The Drake, 302 South Hicks Street
Chris Davis presents a one-man show that is part Nutcracker, part satiric commentary on colonialism and the arts, and part journey of a man pushing middle age learning ballet.
The Lady Hoofers’s The Tapcracker
Saturday, December 13, 11am, 3pm, and 7:30pm
Sunday, December 14, 3pm
Suzanne Roberts Theatre, 480 South Broad Street
The all-woman tap dance troupe’s revisioning of the Nutcracker has grown into a holiday tradition. Set to Duke Ellington’s version of the Tchaikovsky music, the show gives us a Paris vacation with window shopping high-kickers and dance-battling waiters at a Paris bistro.
Chocolate Ballerina Company’s Nutcracker Dipped in Chocolate
Saturday, December 20, and Sunday, December 21, 1:30pm and 7pm
Mandell Theater, 3220 Chestnut Street, Philadelphia
Now in its fifth season, this version of the Nutcracker brings together house and gospel music with the traditional Tchaikovsky in a production that blends African and Brazilian culture with the story of Clara and her nutcracker prince.
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