Ballet Arizona’s Nutcracker Festival

Ballet Arizona held its inaugural Nutcracker Festival at El Chorro on Dec. 2. The 600 guests enjoyed a brunch buffet featuring El Chorro’s sticky buns and crème Brule French toast.

Arts and crafts for children included special activities provided by partnering cultural organizations such as treasure boxes from the Heard Museum, seed packets from the Audubon Arizona and cactus ornaments from Desert Botanical Garden. Children also decorated pointe shoes, played dress-up in Ballet Arizona’s costume closet, decorated gingerbread cookies for dessert and enjoyed extravagant facepainting and impressive balloon artistry.

The highlight of the festival was the performances from the School of Ballet Arizona, under the direction of Carlos Valcárcel, school director. The first performance featured scenes from The Nutcracker, danced by more than 100 students from the lower division levels from the School of Ballet Arizona. Tarantella, the second performance, was danced by the pre-professional program students from the school. The final performance was the Sugar Plum Fairy and her Cavalier, performed by Ballet Arizona company members Michelle Vagi and Michal Wozniak.

Guests also were invited to shop in Ballet Arizona’s gift shop, featuring more than 50 different kinds of unique Nutcracker dolls, take photos with the Dew Drop character from The Nutcracker against the Camelback mountain vista, and have a photo autographed by the Sugar Plum Fairy after her performance.

- Photos by Haute Photography LLC