![\"Nutcracker](\"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/11\/nutcracker-with-large-head-leads-toy-soldiers-on-stage-during-a-performance.jpg\")
Fernando Carratal\u00e1 Coloma and San Francisco Ballet School Students in Tomasson’s ‘Nutcracker'( \u00a9 San Francisco Ballet, photo by Lindsey Rallo)<\/p>\nProduction stage manager Katie Orr has been working at the San Francisco Ballet since 2017. Previously at the New York City Ballet, she\u2019s worked on hundreds of productions of The Nutcracker, the story of the little girl, Clara, who receives a nutcracker doll for Christmas and dreams it comes to life. <\/p>\n
But Orr still loves Tchaikovsky\u2019s music and choreographer Helgi Tomasson\u2019s production, which debuted in 2004. <\/p>\n
It\u2019s set in 1915 San Francisco, with Victorian homes, an indoor snowstorm, and scenes in the Conservatory of Flowers. At the time, San Francisco had just gotten electricity, which makes for a dramatic moment in the party scene in the first act.<\/p>\n
\u201cWe gather all the kids together, and it’s the big reveal of, \u2018Look at the Christmas tree,\u2019\u201d Orr says. \u201cWe turn the lights on\u2014not just candles that are lit up. We plug it in, and it’s a big deal.\u201d<\/p>\n
Orr, who describes herself as a \u201cChristmas person,\u201d loves the audience\u2019s response to this, as well as to the snowflakes that fall at the end of the first act. <\/p>\n
\u201cOnce it begins snowing, it doesn’t stop. In fact, the snow gets heavier and heavier and heavier throughout the scene, so by the end, you are just in a blizzard of a winter wonderland,\u201d she says. \u201cIt’s so exciting for the dancers to dance through it as well. As much as it gets on them, it’s still so beautiful to see. One of my favorite moments is the snow scene, simply because we don’t get snow here. Most people kind of ooh and ah at that scene.\u201d<\/p>\n
Principal dancer Sasha De Sola<\/a> who has been with the company 20 years loves it too, along with other elements of the production. <\/p>\n \u201cOne is the change from the party scene into the battle scene, where everything grows to this colossal size,\u201d she says. \u201cIt’s quite impressive when you see it, and then the stage goes black. We have an enormous stage, and having a huge black stage that all of a sudden opens up into this pristine snow scene is beautiful.\u201d <\/p>\n De Sola has danced all the female roles in the ballet in San Francisco, except for the first act\u2019s dancing doll (whose costume weighs almost 20 pounds). This season, she will take on two roles\u2014leading the \u201cWaltz of the Flowers,\u201d the music you probably think of when you think of The Nutcracker, and dancing in the Grand Pas de Deux at the end.<\/p>\n For De Sola, the show is both nostalgic and fresh. She loves being part of a tradition and introducing audiences to the ballet.<\/p>\n \u201cMy personal favorite thing is knowing that very often, people’s first time coming to a ballet is going to see The Nutcracker,\u201d she says. \u201cIf people can feel connected to it right off the bat from its setting in San Francisco and recognizing the architecture and the energy of the city, hopefully then they come back and see more ballets. I think that\u2019s what\u2019s special about The Nutcracker.\u201d<\/p>\n Madeline Woo<\/a>, a principal dancer from Huntington Beach, came to San Francisco from the Royal Swedish Ballet, drawn by artistic director Tamara Rojo\u2019s leadership. She is dancing her first Nutcracker with the company. <\/p>\n Woo remembers being enchanted when her aunt and uncle took her and her sister when she was 10. <\/p>\n \u201cThey were like, \u2018Let\u2019s treat the girls and get them tickets to see The Nutcracker at San Francisco Ballet.\u2019 We were super excited. They got us box seats. It was very bougie and luxurious. I remember we dressed up, and it was super fun, and we got some soup dumplings right before,\u201d Woo says. \u201cIt was so magical. I remember being amazed by the massive sets they had, and when the Christmas tree grows and all the presents grow. I was just so in awe of that.\u201d<\/p>\n There\u2019s lots to amaze audiences, as well as touches in the production they might not be aware of, says Orr. For example, in the party scene, the portraits hanging around the fireplace are the family of dancer and choreographer Lew Christensen<\/a>, who co-directed the San Francisco Ballet with his brother beginning in 1948. All the dancers in that scene have names and backstories about who they\u2019re married to and how many children they have. <\/p>\n She loves to see reactions from the audience, particularly young children.<\/p>\n \u201cStudent matinees are my absolute favorite because I love hearing the kids laugh at unexpected moments that you never thought were funny, but it makes them giggle. I love that you get the oohs and the ahs at the right moments and the applause at the right moments,\u201d says Orr. \u201cBut when they see the snow blizzard, and you’ll just hear a little kid shout, \u2018That’s so cool!\u2019 Those are the moments I love\u2014the unexpected responses from kids.\u201d<\/p>\n![\"Ballet](\"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/11\/ballet-dancers-in-white-costumes-perform-on-a-snowy-stage.jpg\")
![\"Ballet](\"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/11\/ballet-dancer-mid-leap-with-background-dancers-in-colorful-costumes-on-stage.jpg\")
![\"Ballet](\"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/11\/ballet-dancers-in-white-costumes-gracefully-perform-on-a-snow-covered-stage.jpg\")
Jasmine Jimison and Fernando Carratal\u00e1 Coloma in Tomasson’s Nutcracker( \u00a9 San Francisco Ballet, photo by Lindsey Rallo)<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Production stage manager Katie Orr has been working at the San Francisco Ballet since 2017. Previously at the…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":46797,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[30],"tags":[2977,30734,9479,30733,30732,30739,15322,30735,101,30736,103,102,104,30731,30737,106,30738,105,30730],"class_list":["post-46796","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-san-francisco","tag-sanfrancisco","tag-ballet","tag-christmas","tag-classic-ballet","tag-holiday-classic","tag-holiday-event","tag-holiday-season","tag-nutcracker","tag-san-francisco","tag-san-francisco-christmas","tag-san-francisco-headlines","tag-san-francisco-news","tag-sf","tag-sf-ballet","tag-sf-christmas","tag-sf-headlines","tag-sf-holidays","tag-sf-news","tag-the-nutcracker"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/46796","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=46796"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/46796\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/46797"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=46796"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=46796"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=46796"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}