For many families, the holidays don’t truly begin until The Nutcracker takes center stage—a world where toys come to life, snowflakes dance, and holiday magic feels real. This year, the Beck Center for the Arts Dance Center brought the classical ballet to life with performances that ran from Dec. 5-15, 2025, in the Music and Art Therapies Building.

The production features two separate casts, Cast A and Cast B, to accommodate the large number of participants.

The cast included individuals of all ages, from age 7 to late 60s, highlighting that The Nutcracker is for everyone. It was important to Yarur that every cast member’s family had the opportunity to attend at least one show.

The two Dec. 5 shows were labeled Sensory-Friendly performances, designed for younger audience members and those with disabilities.

“It’s hard to sit still. It’s hard to be quiet. The noises and other unexpected elements that occur during a show can make it difficult for some audience members to enjoy the performance, so the sensory-friendly show is essentially the same as the one we present for the rest of the audience. But the music is a little quieter. The lights are not as dark,” Yarur said.

During that time, activities were set up in the lobby, and a quiet room in the music studios was available to accommodate all audience needs.

The set design was a community effort. “We made this giant gingerbread house…I got my neighbor to help cut out the pieces of wood and assemble them, and then some of the staff here helped me paint it and decorate it,” Yarur said.

Since the performance venue lacked backdrop capabilities, the two gingerbread houses helped highlight the production’s magic. These efforts demonstrate how the show’s charm was preserved while adding personal touches and local effort.

This production marked Melissa Yarur’s debut as director at the Beck Center, having taken over for the previous director in July 2025. For her first large show, every performance sold out weeks in advance.

The show still faces challenges. “I’ve never done this before…putting together the scenes that have lots of dancers on the stage, and not a lot of dancing. So there’s more acting or moving around on the stage, but not as much what we call choreography, where you can count the music, and you have specific steps that once you hear it, that’s almost that easy.” Yarur said.

This required a different creative approach to ensure that each dancer understood their role, even when they were not performing traditional steps. Yarur emphasized balancing dedication with joy: “I try really hard to balance the sort of hard work towards perfection, which we don’t care so much about perfection, but I do care about hard work, right? And I want our dancers to know that I am proud of them when I see them working hard. And so I tell them that, and I want the dancers, I want the audience to know how much joy dance brings to our performers.”

“It’s a good learning experience, like memorizing all the different choreography and meeting new people, and performing for people and giving them a good experience.” Muzychenko said.

Muzychenko’s favorite part of the experience was bringing ballet to audiences who hadn’t seen a performance before. “The funnest part is probably the sensory-friendly performances, because kids with special needs can, like, come and watch the ballet when they’re like, not normally able to, and it’s so special to be able to see their faces light up when they see the dancers,” Muzychenko said.

Nidea Stevenson, a junior at Lakewood High School and a longtime ballet dancer, also performed in the production. “I had three roles, but my personal favorite was the snow scene. The snowflakes are iconic in every adaptation of The Nutcracker and are known for having difficult, technical dances. The snowflakes are chaotic and intense: a big shift from the light playfulness of the party scene, which is directly before the snow scene.” Stevenson said.

Stevenson faced challenges during the production. “I bruised my big toenail, since I am on pointe and dancing on top of my toes, it was incredibly painful for me, I was icing my feet backstage and elevating my feet up to help with the pain,” Stevenson said. Backstage, Stevenson was surrounded by a supportive team, who helped her manage the injury and prepare for her scenes.

With sold-out shows, unique community sets, and heartfelt performances from dancers of all ages, the Beck Center’s The Nutcracker successfully reimagined the holiday story through a local lens, kicking off the holiday season in Lakewood.