New York City Ballet has canceled all remaining performances of George Balanchine’s The Nutcracker. The annual production was scheduled to perform through January 2, 2022, and initially only canceled performances December 22–27. However, due to additional positive test results for breakthrough COVID-19 cases within the company, the ballet did not resume performances December 28 as planned.

“While New York City Ballet had hoped to resume performances this evening, we have made the decision that continuing to perform at this time would not be in the best interest of the NYCB community, whose health and safety is our number one priority," said NYCB Executive Director Kathy Brown and Artistic Director Jonathan Stafford in a joint statement. "We are extraordinarily proud of everyone who safely came together to present 30 beautiful performances of George Balanchine’s The Nutcracker in recent weeks, and we are also very grateful to the thousands of people who attended.”

Audience members holding tickets for the canceled performances can receive a full refund or donate the value of their tickets to NYCB as a tax-deductible charitable contribution.

Set to Peter Ilyitch Tschaikovsky’s score, NYCB’s production of George Balanchine’s The Nutcracker features choreography by Balanchine, scenery by Rouben Ter-Arutunian, costumes by Karinska, and lighting by Mark Stanley, after the original lighting design by Ronald Bates (which involves one million watts of lighting in the grand finale).

With the exception of 2020, NYCB's production of The Nutcracker has been performed every year in New York City since its 1954 premiere.

In a partnership with Marquee TV, New York City Ballet is offering a stream of the 2019 production of George Balanchine’s The Nutcracker through January 2. The broadcast features recently retired NYCB Principal Dancer Maria Kowroski as the Sugarplum Fairy, Tyler Angle as Her Cavalier, and Megan Fairchild as Dewdrop. Click here for streaming tickets.