ORANGE PARK – The Florida Ballet partnered with the Thrasher-Horne Center of the Arts to bring the iconic “The Nutcracker” to the stage last weekend.

For those unfamiliar with The Nutcracker, it may be hard to understand the nostalgia and magic of the show. The show is an annual tradition for many, like Christmas carols or holiday baking.

For the dancers that perform in the show, it’s a sort of right-of-passage to move up the ranks. Often the youngest dancers grow up playing the small mice and the candy children. As they get more experienced, they may get the chance to be the dancers who take the lead of Clara and the Nutcracker.

The show opens on a Christmas party; as the dancers bring giant presents in for children and adults alike to enjoy. The porcelain dolls and toy soldiers are themselves played by dancers, and perform to the delight of both the children on stage and the children in the audience. Clara receives a nutcracker that she cherishes dearly. Before she can thank her uncle, who gifted it to her, her brother breaks it. Their uncle repaired the nutcracker with a flourish of the hand, but the party quickly dies out.

Clara falls asleep near the lights of the Christmas tree and awakes to rats trying to steal leftovers and take presents. She’s frightened, but suddenly her Nutcracker comes to life along with the toy soldiers and leaps across the stage to defeat the rats and their king.

The Christmas tree grows taller on the stage and shows the audience that the people on stage are shrinking to the size of the toys. The Rat King’s sword catches the Nutcracker in the back, and Clara rushes for him, horrified. She throws her shoe at the Rat King, who falls back as the music goes quiet. The lights were dim as she kneels by her Nutcracker, crying that he’s broken again. Suddenly, she moves away as the nutcracker wakes up.

The lights brighten, the music swells, and we see that the wooden nutcracker has turned into a human. He offers his hand to Clara and whisks her away to a winter wonderland. The inhabitants are overwhelmingly grateful that she’s defeated the Rat King and set them free from his persecutions.

The rest of the show passes in a gorgeous display of colors and lights as dancers twirl and leap across the stage, telling the story of the Marzipan Candies, the Sugar Plum Princess, and the various toys such as Russian dolls. Snowflakes dance across the stage as actual snowfalls from the rafters, illuminated by the swirling lights and the soft piano that slowly builds into a blizzard.

Even with no words spoken, the story is captivating. The music leads you through the scenes with flutes and strings that seem to match with characters. The dancers were as expressive as they were fluid. Even during some of the slower scenes, there was never any doubt that everyone was paying attention.

As audience members filed out of the theatre, children of all ages were mimicking the ballet they saw only a few minutes earlier. Their enthusiasm and wonder at the show are why so many dancers put in hard work year after year to bring this story to life.

It’s because of them that the future of ballet continues to grow as current dancers inspire and encourage others to create their own Nutcracker magic.