Is there a way to get through this time of year without reserving tickets for a performance of The Nutcracker? And, if decidedly doing so, how to choose which performance to see? The Bardavon each year hosts the New Paltz Ballet Theater’s production of E. T. A. Hoffman’s The Nutcracker and the Mouse King, with music by Peter Ilyich Tchaikovsky. The two-act tale of a young girl’s journey with her magic Christmas gift through the Land of Snow and the Kingdom of Sweets, with giant fighting mice, marching toy soldiers and Sugar Plum Fairies along the way, is set to run for two performances on Saturday, December 11 and one on Sunday, December 12. It will be staged with costumes and scenery by designer Ray Delle Robbins of Houston Ballet and Houston’s Theatre under the Stars, staging and choreography by Peter Naumann and Lisa Naumann, who previously danced with the New York City Ballet, and two world-renowned principal dancers from the New York City Ballet – Ask la Cour and Teresa Reichlen – dancing leads.

Tickets for the performances of The Nutcracker on Saturday, December 11 at 2 and 7:30 p.m. and on Sunday, December 12 at 3 p.m. are available through the Bardavon box office at 35 Market Street in Poughkeepsie, (845) 473-2072, or at other sites including Kingston’s UPAC Theater on Broadway. For further information visit www.bardavon.org.