On December 11, 2025, American Ballet Theatre (ABT) opened its 10th anniversary season of Alexei Ratmansky’s The Nutcracker at the Segerstrom Center for the Arts in Costa Mesa, California. The opening night performance featured live musical accompaniment by the Pacific Symphony. ABT Principal Dancers Isabella Boylston and James Whiteside performed the lead roles of Clara, the Princess, and the Nutcracker Prince.
The performance followed a virtual “Pop-Up Book Club” webinar hosted by ABT on December 1, 2025. Moderated by filmmaker Justin Souriau-Levine, who was ABT’s original “Little Mouse,” the panel featured Production Stage Manager Danielle Ventimiglia alongside corps de ballet dancers Lauren Bonfiglio and Cy Doherty. The discussion detailed the technical mechanics of the production’s staging. Specifically, the set features household chairs that mechanically scale up during the battle scene to simulate a child’s perspective, and the choreography requires Clara to execute her shoe-throw at the Mouse King from the top of this structure.