LBP SCHOOL OF DANCE | RAVENSWOOD MANOR, CHICAGO
Presents
The Nutcracker
Chicago's Nutcracker, danced by Chicago's neighborhood children for more than fifty years
One of the longest continuously running annual productions of The Nutcracker in Chicago — staged every December since the early 1970s, and cast entirely from the students and parents of our Ravenswood Manor studio.
The Snow Queen
2026 SEASON
December 5-6, 2026
More details coming soon
A CHICAGO TRADITION
More than 50 years of traveling in the Land of Sweets
LBP School of Dance has staged The Nutcracker every year for more than fifty years. It is one of the longest-running annual productions in the Chicago area, and one of the very few mounted by a neighborhood nonprofit school.
What makes it a tradition isn't its age. It's that the same families keep coming back.
A dancer's first season might be as a Gingerbread, small enough that the costume has to be pinned. A few years on, she's a Snowflake. Then the Snow Queen. Eventually she's the one standing in the studio hallway on audition day, straightening her own daughter's ribbons.
Grandparents come for a granddaughter's first turn as a party child and are still in the audience a decade later when she dances the Sugar Plum Fairy. And plenty of them keep coming back after that, with no dancer of their own on stage, because by then the show belongs to them too.
Nearly every role belongs to an LBP student, from the youngest party children to the Sugar Plum Fairy herself. Sugar Plum is what a dancer grows toward: a role watched from the wings long before it's danced, earned over years of Saturday mornings. To reach it is to have come the whole way through this studio, from a pinned Gingerbread costume to the final variation of the ballet.
For a small number of senior roles we invite guest artists from the wider Chicago dance community, so our advanced dancers partner and perform at a genuine professional standard.
The result is a production that holds a real artistic bar while remaining, unmistakably, the neighborhood's own. The Sugar Plum Fairy is someone's big sister, and the mice live three blocks from the studio.
What sets LBP's Nutcracker Apart
One of Chicago's longest continuously running annual Nutcrackers
Our own students dance the leads, including the Sugar Plum Fairy, with professional guest artists in select partnering roles
Presented by a 501(c)(3) nonprofit dance school, not a touring company
Full Tchaikovsky score, traditional three-act staging
Roles for beginners and advanced dancers alike, from age three up who are enrolled at LBP School of Dance in at least one ballet class
A family-length afternoon performance, priced for neighborhood families
What happens in LBP Studio of Dance's production of The Nutcracker
Act I
Christmas Eve
It is Christmas Eve, long ago. Shimmering Christmas music promises magic to come. In her workshop, Frau Drosselmeyer, Clara’s godmother and a renowned inventor,
works feverishly to finish her dolls in time for the Stahlbaum Christmas party.
Drosselmeyer has made a special doll, a Nutcracker, for Clara. Meanwhile, as the grownups bustle about, Clara and Fritz, the Stahlbaum children, are burning with excitement. Soon, friends and relatives begin arriving, dressed in their holiday silks and satins. Cousins and friends join Clara and Fritz.
The dancing begins, presents are exchanged and merriment abounds. Frau Drosselmeyer presents several life-sized dolls she has brought to entertain the party guests.
Drosselmeyer presents Clara with her special Nutcracker. Filled with jealousy, Fritz snatches the Nutcracker, and in the ensuing melee, he breaks it. Fritz is led away to bed as punishment. The guests soon depart, and the Stahlbaum house prepares for bed.
Act II
The Land of Snow
With the guests departed and the children snuggled in bed, silence befalls the sleeping Stahlbaum household. Only the mice are stirring. Clara dreams of dancing angels until the clock chimes the midnight hour. Mice creep out from their hiding places.
As Frau Drosselmeyer appears, her magic causes the Christmas tree to grow. Clara takes notice and asks her to bring the Nutcracker doll to life. Drosselmeyer transforms the Nutcracker into a noble prince! A troop of toy soldiers is summoned to battle with the mice. They fight in earnest while the evil Mouse Queen jousts with the Nutcracker. After defeating the Mouse Queen the Nutcracker lies fatally wounded with a tearful Clara by his side.
Drosselmeyer enchantingly brings the Nutcracker back to life. With Drosselmeyer’s blessing, the Nutcracker offers his hand to Clara and invites her to the “Land of Sweets.” But first they travel through the dazzling “Land of Snow,” where they meet the Snow Queen and King, and the swirling Snowflakes.
Act III
The Land of Sweets
Clara and the Nutcracker arrive in the mesmerizing “Kingdom of Sweets.” The Sugar Plum Fairy and her Cavalier call forth all the specialities of the land to entertain
Clara.
Dancers from Chocolate, Coffee, Tea and Marzipan perform intricate dances. Mirlitons swirl to the music of reed flutes. Out from under Mother Ginger's skirt leap little Gingerbread Cookies. Led by the Rose, the Flowers waltz.
Lastly, the Sugar Plum Fairy and her Cavalier dance for Clara.
A CHICAGO TRADITION
Every December, there's a place for you
FOR AUDIENCES
See the performance
Performances are held each December at a theater in the Chicago area. In 2026, we will hold our performance December 5-6 at Regina Dominican high school. The show runs about three hours with two intermissions and suits young children and first-time ballet audiences.
TICKETS ON SALE SOON
FOR DANCERS
Join the Show
Auditions are held in September and are open to all enrolled students at LBP School of Dance in at least one ballet class. Rehearsals run on Sundays through the fall. Every dancer who auditions is cast, with roles matched to age and level - from party children and mice through the corps of Snowflakes and the Sugar Plum Fairy