Founded in 1986, Nashville Ballet is a nonprofit organization that has become the largest professional ballet company in Tennessee. With original ballets by Artistic Director and CEO, Nick Mullikin, in addition to an impressive repertoire of classical ballet and boundary-pushing choreographers, they are home to many talented dancers and have become a beloved part of the city’s arts and culture scene. While they operate from their own 44,000-square-foot building, Martin Center, the Ballet hosts most performances at the Tennessee Performing Arts Center (TPAC). The company also collaborates with organizations like the Nashville Symphony, creating unique opportunities to experience the magic of dance alongside other forms of live performance. While they offer a dynamic lineup of performances year-round, their production of Nashville’s Nutcracker has remained a fan-favorite for over twenty years.
Nashville’s Nutcracker is a special holiday tradition for so many—featuring Tchaikovsky’s enduringly iconic score performed live by the Nashville Symphony, Artistic Director Emeritus Paul Vasterling’s Emmy Award-winning retelling takes you on a uniquely-Nashville adventure filled with swirling snowflakes, whimsical wonders, and timeless storytelling. From the costumes and lighting to the choreography and set design, every department plays an essential role in bringing the magic of this production to life—and the details truly make all the difference! Nick Mullikin is no stranger to the show, as he has been performing in nationwide productions of The Nutcracker for thirty-five years. Each year, Nashville’s production brings something fresh and unique, evolving in new and exciting ways so that no two performances are ever quite the same. He ensures each detail is taken into consideration, creating a true experience for both the audience and the cast. The team works hard all year to give the audience a performance that is both memorable and unique from the year prior—in fact, as soon as the curtain closes on one year’s performance, they are already prepping details for the following year.
“The costumes, I think, are one of the biggest highlights and one of the things that always stand out to our audience,” Mullikin shares. “Campbell Baird designed them with longevity in mind while ensuring their beauty never faded. We’re talking about two decades of these costumes, and they still feel bright today and resonate with our audience as much as ever. I’m always so impressed with how our wardrobe team continues to bring that design to life.”
Nashville Ballet has over thirty professional company artists from around the world who perform in all main-stage productions during their performance season. Nashville’s Nutcracker cast includes Nashville Ballet Company Artists, Nashville Ballet’s Second Company (NB2) and more than 200 local youth performers from School of Nashville Ballet and the broader Nashville community. Additionally, School of Nashville Ballet also offers the highest quality training for children and adults of all ages and Mullikin leads an outstanding faculty and artistic staff, providing a complete dance experience that is both challenging and rewarding. Auditioning for the production can feel a little overwhelming for the young dancers; they audition, get selected, and then have about a month to learn the choreography.
“They come in with the company dancers in the studio, and you get to watch in awe and amazement on their faces as they realize, ‘Oh, wow, this is way bigger than I thought it was going to be and these older dancers all know what they’re doing,’ Nick explains. “Our company spends a lot of time working with the kids, trying to ensure they know their marks and their spacing, understand their music, and know where to go... I think it teaches them some great life skills about how to learn, retain, and then apply material that I think serves them well beyond being on stage.”
Nashville Ballet produces five programs through their company every year and have over 2,600 students that they serve in School of Nashville Ballet—that includes nearly two-thousand adult students who have joined them to take a class in one form or another. In addition, they serve over eighteen-thousand community members with free arts experiences so that they can enjoy and learn about what ballet is and enjoy music in that way. Nashville Ballet is also in the Metro Nashville Public School system at libraries, furthering arts education so they can see what imagination and dreams can bring to life for all.
“Because we are a professional ballet company, we compete worldwide to attract dancers to Nashville—we are not a passing-through Broadway show,” Mullikin shares. “We have thirty-one professional artists who call Nashville home. They come from countries, including Japan, Brazil, Canada, and England, to serve Nashville as a community and bring this art form to them. People love to ask what the dancers do for a living—this is what they do. This is who they are.“
At its core, Nashville Ballet was created as a place to create, perform, teach, and champion dance as an essential and inspiring part of our community. It is deeply meaningful to Mullikin, his team, and all of the dancers as they eagerly welcome audiences through their doors year after year. Their annual performance of Nashville’s Nutcracker is a constant reminder of hard work paying off, and it means the world to them to continue to play a part in cherished family traditions and create memories that last for generations.
“It’s one of the most rewarding things to walk into the audience and see generations of families who have been coming to the ballet for years, making an entire day of it—having tea, brunch, or dinner afterward,” Mullikin explains. “You realize the impact goes beyond the costumes, sets, lights, and stress of the performance. It’s about bringing people together for once-in-a-lifetime experiences. Even if they’ve come for twenty years, every performance is unique—from the symphony to the dancers to what’s happening downtown. They remember those moments. That’s what we aim to be: a memorable experience that people can’t have anywhere else.”
Looking for a festive way to kick off the holiday season? Nashville Ballet brings the magic of Nashville’s Nutcracker to the stage November 27 through December 27. Early next year, February 26 through February 28, the Ballet will be performing Cinderella before concluding its season with Attitude featuring Erase the Night—an original ballet created by Nick Mullikin that talks about addiction, mental health, and overcoming those obstacles. Tickets are available at nashvilleballet.com.
“It’s one of the most rewarding things to walk into the audience and see generations of families who have been coming to the ballet for years..."
“You realize the impact goes beyond the costumes, sets, lights, and stress of the performance... It’s about bringing people together for once-in-a-lifetime experiences."