The 14th annual production of The Nutcracker, presented by RBC, returns to Vancouver’s Queen Elizabeth Theatre from December 19 to 22 for five performances, each accompanied by the Vancouver Opera Orchestra.
This year’s theme, A Holiday Dream Danced To Life, hits especially close to home for New York-based ballet star Benjamin Freemantle; this 2024 production is a true homecoming — at age 14, he travelled in from his native Port Moody to audition for Goh’s first ever Nutcracker production. He landed the Harlequin role but still remembers what it felt like to watch that year’s Cavalier Prince: “Seeing a professional, masculine man come in and perform beautifully, and dance on a big stage, and live a fantasy… I remember those moments when I was a kid, thinking: I want to do that. I want to be the prince.”
Freemantle left for the San Francisco Ballet shortly after and has since worked in NY Fashion Week, films, and the upcoming Prime series Étoile. This year, he returns to perform as Cavalier Prince, his first time dancing in Canada since that inaugural Nutcracker – and fifteen years after his teenaged Nutcracker debut, a holiday dream danced to life.
Goh Ballet’s production brings a unique kind of magic: towering hand-painted backdrops, dazzling period costumes, and an unparalleled cast of over 200 dancers comprised of international guest stars and the region’s top talent selected from 26 dance organizations and companies. It’s Vancouver’s only professional production of The Nutcracker that delivers Tchaikovsky’s exhilarating score with live accompaniment from the Orchestra pit. It’s also the one local ballet that pulls from the world’s best while cultivating the city’s future artists.
Visiting principal dancers with global acclaim – including Benjamin Freemantle (Cavalier Prince) and Lyrica Woodruff (Sugar Plum Fairy), and dancers from the National Ballet of China – will be joined by performers from 11 countries such as the UK, Panama, Brazil, Japan and Poland.
Goh Ballet’s The Nutcracker has become the city’s de-facto holiday tradition, with continued choreography by the Emmy-award-winning Anna-Marie Holmes, guided by the refined vision of Executive Producer Chan Hon Goh, C.M., D.Litt. A former Principal Dancer with The National Ballet of Canada – and Canada’s first prima ballerina of Chinese descent – Ms. Goh understands the unique balance between cultivating Vancouver’s local artists while captivating audiences with the world’s best, the balance between reprising a story steeped in over 200 years of tradition while delivering relatable content year after year.
Tickets, starting at just $28, can be purchased at gohnutcracker.com