From LIVE ARTS TOLEDO
The Live Arts Toledo proudly will stage the 85th annual production of “The Nutcracker,” the longest-running production of the beloved holiday ballet in North America. Performances, presented by Fifth Third Bank, run December 12–14, at The Stranahan Theater, 4645 Heatherdowns Blvd., Toledo.
Showtimes are:
- Friday, Dec. 12, 10:30 a.m. (student performance)
- Friday, Dec. 12, 7 p.m.
- Saturday, Dec. 13, 2 p.m.
- Saturday, Dec.13, 7 p.m.
- Sunday, December 14, 2 p.m.
For tickets call the box office at 419-246-8000 or visit liveartstoledo.com
A legacy 85 years in the making
The history of Toledo Ballet’s Nutcracker is inseparable from the vision of its founder, Marie Bollinger Vogt, who first gathered twelve young dancers in 1939 to stage excerpts of the ballet at the Toledo Museum of Art’s Hemicycle Theatre (space that the Canaday Gallery occupies today). Sponsored by the Monday Musicale Society, that first performance was small in scale but expansive in imagination.
As Vogt recalled in a 2015 interview: “That first performance of ‘Nutcracker’ was very limited. We weren’t able to get more of the score from Russia. I was young, and the dancers were young. It was mostly the first scene and divertissement.”
The production saw its first full staging in 1941. In successive years, it migrated to Toledo’s larger stages—the Peristyle, the Paramount Theatre, the Rivoli, the State, and ultimately The Stranahan—becoming a fixture of Toledo’s cultural fabric.
By 1949, Vogt had forged a formative partnership with the Toledo Symphony, foreshadowing the organizations’ ultimate merger 70 years later. She remembered its beginnings vividly: “A fine conductor from Germany came to Toledo, Wolfgang Stresemann. He said to me, ‘Marie, you and I have to be partners. We have to have ballet and the symphony as well.’”
She continues, “That led to our first performance at the beautiful Peristyle. There were blue screens across the stage of the Peristyle. The orchestra would sit behind the screens and play, and the dancers would dance in front of the screens.
“Wolfgang would mount a little ladder and, from behind the screens, conduct as he watched us dance.”
“The Nutcracker”was not simply a production to “Madame” Vogt. It was an extension of her life’s work, her artistic family, and her ongoing legacy. “I absolutely love ‘The Nutcracker,’” she remarked in 2001. “It is part of my life’s blood. I look for the development of the dancers. I look for the joy in the audience. The children I have taught have grown up and are now bringing their own children to the shows. My dancing family and I will not be separated.”
Carrying the tradition forward
Eighty-five years on, Marie Vogt’s legacy continues through the artists who now shape the production. Each brings a contemporary perspective while honoring the spirit she established: a blend of rigor, imagination, and community that remains the hallmark of Toledo Ballet.
“Each season, “The Nutcracker” asks us to rediscover wonder, but this year carries extra resonance,” observes Eric Otto, Toledo Ballet’s Artistic Director. “Eighty-five years of dancers, parents, teachers, and musicians have poured their hearts into this production, and you can feel that legacy in every rehearsal. Our students know they are stepping into something so much larger than themselves, and they rise to it with extraordinary dedication.”
For Live Arts Toledo’s President & CEO, Zak Vassar, the continuity between past and present is unmistakable. “When Marie Vogt began working on ‘The Nutcracker’in 1939, she wasn’t just creating a performance, she was helping to shape a national tradition,” he says. “What we now consider a quintessential American holiday ritual began, in part, right here in Toledo. This anniversary reminds us that Toledo Ballet hasn’t just taken part in an American tradition, it helped define one.”
This year’s production connects this tradition with one of Toledo Ballet’s most successful alumna, Isabella LaFreniere, now a principal dancer with New York City Ballet. She will perform the role of Sugar Plum Fairy in the Saturday evening and Sunday matinee performances alongside principal dancer Ryan Tomash, of the Danish Royal Ballet..
LaFreniere’s return underscores the impact of Toledo Ballet’s training across decades: “Toledo Ballet’s ‘Nutcracker’ holds a special place in my heart because it was the first production of “The Nutcracker”that I saw, and it’s also the first Nutcracker that I performed in. I can’t wait to return to Toledo, watch the younger generation of dancers, and spread holiday joy.”
The orchestra pit will welcome its own ballet royalty, with the addition of conductor Jonathan McPhee. music director of Boston Ballet for 28 seasons, he remains one of the nation’s foremost ballet conductors. While this is his first “Nutcracker”in Toledo, he led the orchestra in Toledo Ballet’s productions of Prokofiev’s “Cinderella” (2023) and Tchaikovsky’s “The Sleeping Beauty”(2024).
Based on his previous visits to Toledo, McPhee observed something remarkable in Live Arts Toledo’s marriage of dancers and orchestra. “This organization is the only one in the country who offers young ballet dancers the opportunity to learn their craft the way it was meant to be, with live music by a top-notch professional orchestra. No recording can build phrasing and understanding of how to move to these great musical masterpieces.”
Together, these talents—national artists, local leaders, alumni, and the next generation—affirm what Marie Vogt established 85 years ago: that “The Nutcracker” is not merely a holiday tradition, but a living, evolving expression of community, beauty, and imagination.
Otto agrees: “Watching this cast bring Marie Vogt’s vision forward, in partnership with our incredible orchestra, guest artists, and Toledo Ballet’s own company dancers Liza van Heerden, David Claypoole, and Rachel Aron, is profoundly moving. This anniversary is not just a celebration of the ballet’s history, it’s a celebration of the community that has kept it alive.”
