Northern Ballet in The Nutcracker. Picture Sophie Beth Jones
2026 will see Leeds company Northern Ballet launch the world premiere of Belgian-Colombian choreographer Annabelle Lopez Ochoa’s Gentleman Jack at Leeds Grand Theatre from March 7 to 14.
Already the stuff of biographies, novels and a brace of TV series, the story of adventurous Yorkshire landowner Anne Lister, of Shibden Hall, Halifax, will be staged with a new live score by Peter Salem in a co-production with Finnish National Opera and Ballet.
Exciting times ahead under Federico Bonelli’s artistic directorship, but in the meantime Northern Ballet regulars will be delighted at the latest return of company staple The Nutcracker.
Premiered in 2007, former artistic director David Nixon CBE’s decorative, delightful, dazzling winter wonderland has become his most performed work, bidding farewell to the old year and embracing the new every few years, last doing so in 2022 on tour and back home in Leeds.
Glory be, this latest resurrection comes with a live orchestra (under conductor Yi Wei on press night), when the sight as well as sound of musicians makes the ballet all the more joyous (whereas recorded accompaniment can be so sterile).
What’s more, like singing Christmas Carols or re-visiting Dickens’s A Christmas Carol, the familiarity of Nixon’s choreography and costume designs breeds ever more contentment, adding to the emotional impact of a story told so beautifully, with such sparkle, wonder and bravura dancing, against the grain of the 21st century world’s woes and wars.
Once more snow may fail to dust Yorkshire’s hills this festive season, but winter’s white coat is all part of the nostalgic magic of Nixon’s Nutcracker, where snowflakes flutter across the stage front cloth to set the mood for his Regency England setting of Tchaikovsky’s late-19th century Christmas ballet.
Charles Cusick Smith’s gorgeous designs cast their own spell again, their grand scale sweeping up audience and dancers alike in the fantastical journey from castle drawing-room party to toy battlefield, snowy fairyland and a world above the clouds.
As in every home across the land, Rachael Gillespie’s inquisitive Clara excitedly awaits the chance to unwrap the presents that lie behind the towering, closed doors on Christmas Eve night.
When the clock strikes midnight, Clara is transported to fantasia by Harris Beattie’s noble Nutcracker Prince, her journey through the snow orchestrated flamboyantly by Harry Skoupas’s dandy Herr Drosselmeyer, fleet of foot and full of poised purpose.
Bruno Serraclara’s Mouse King seeks to defy the odds, so brave in dashing defeat, and making an amusing exit to boot, before Act One’s climax mirrors the traditions of pantomime in the outstanding transformation scene, graced with the most beautiful imagery of all, yet more delightful for Mark Jonathan’s lighting: spectacle as big as Yorkshire.
As ever, Act Two is even better, its tempo set by Saeka Shirai’s enchanting Sugar Plum Fairy, in tandem with Jonathan Hanks’s Cavalier.
Amid the snow, contrast is provided by the kaleidoscopically colourful pageant of national dances – Spanish, Arabian, Chinese, French, Russian – in a showcase with an amusingly competitive spirit, orchestrated with panache by Skoupas’s Drosselmeyer.
Throughout, Nixon adorns Tchaikovsky’s rousing score with the poetic eloquence of his elegant choreography, at once beauteous and charming, suffused with romance and drama, always up for mischievous comic interplay too in Puck style.
The Nutcracker is on cracking good form, a winter warmer like no other in Yorkshire this season.
Northern Ballet in The Nutcracker, Leeds Grand Theatre, until January 4 2026. Box office: 0113 243 0808 or leedsheritagetheatres.com