You can't bring somebody into a theater and show them a full evening of Balanchine or Merce Cunningham or Martha Graham works. They're going to go like, "What is this?"

They need to be introduced to what it is. And [The Nutcracker] is the perfect vehicle to do it with, more than Cinderella, more than any of these others. Swan Lake, people fall asleep. And Sleeping Beauty goes on for four hours. Enough is enough. The Nutcracker is perfect, it's perfect.

When I was 16, I had been given a couple of tickets to go see The Nutcracker at the old Back Bay theater. I'd never seen ballet before. I sat in the first row. And I had never been to a ballet in my life, never seen it on television, had no idea what it was about, and the music started playing. And I had studied piano, so I sort of knew about the music. And the curtain opened and, like I said, it was a party scene. It was like, "Oh this is pretty neat, this is cool."

And then the tree grew and the kettle drums are going and I was in goose bumps. Then the battle scene. And then the snow, it was really snowing on stage. And I literally sat there with my mouth open. I mean like, "How can this be? This is like a whole life unto self. It's just magic."

Then in the second act of course she was the Sugarplum Fairy. And there's this girl who sits beside me in school, and here she was this star ballerina, so elegant and so beautiful. I just was hooked. I said, "That's it. This is what I'm going to do."

Our mission statement basically says that the purpose of this company is to bring dance to the communities that could not necessarily be exposed to it or afford it.

And what we do is, we perform here in Cambridge, at the Fitzgerald Theater. And we perform at The Strand in Dorchester. And particularly at the Strand in Dorchester, that's a community that would never ever be able to afford tickets at $45 to $75 a seat. So our ticket prices are actually $6 to $12.

We involve in our productions students from the local dancing schools with every community that we go to, in Salem, in Norwell, out in the Worcester area. And our most expensive seat is $17.50 with these other communities.

Ours is a really traditional, sort of, I can't say all American, because it takes place in Germany, but that kind of feeling. And what I've done with our Nutcracker is I've preserved a lot of the choreography that Virginia Williams did which is absolutely beautiful choreography.

Our dancing is very musical. It's coached a lot. The dancers are clean. They dance well. They dance with great with great energy and spirit. They love doing this. Our dancers love the opportunity to get out and dance 20 shows. They don't care whether it's the 10 o'clock matinee for kids or a public show. They love it.

Some of the critics have said about my company is what they love is that it's a company full of energy and passion and a true love for dancing. And that comes across on the stage.

Boston Ballet
Boston Dance Company
Ballet Theatre of Boston