Minnesota Ballet’s The Nutcracker dances into your living room on CBS 3

DULUTH, MN — For decades, the Nutcracker has been a Christmastime classic.

Duluth’s Minnesota Ballet normally performs in front of a live audience but had to adapt this year to COVID-19 restrictions.

Artistic Director of the Minnesota Ballet, Karl von Rabenau, said the company had to get creative.

“We had to re-think this and figure out how can we do this, make it imaginative, make it compelling to the audience to want to see it,” he said.

To continue the holiday tradition, the ballet will be pre-recorded at the Depot and Glensheen and will air on CBS 3.

The performance will be shortened and will mix traditional dances with a Northland-inspired storyline.

“We’re kind of guiding them in the story a little bit more than allowing them to view things on their own,” von Rabenau said. “It makes for a more guided tour of the story.”

Dancers are hoping this new take on the Nutcracker brings all the same feelings.

“The holiday spirit and just a sense of joy and excitement and happiness for the holidays,” dancer Brianna Crockett said.

The audience can experience the familiar fairytale from the comfort of their own home.

“I just hope that we can give them a little escape from the drain of COVID and just a little fantasy and back to some semblance of normalcy,” dancer Reinhard von Rabenau said.

Reinhard von Rabenau said he is thrilled for the chance to give the audience a new take on the Nutcracker.

“I think that a re-imagining is always an exciting opportunity for audiences to look at something from a different point of view,” he said.

It’s a new journey for an old tradition, brought right to your living room.

The ballet performance will air on Monday, December 21st, from 7 p.m. to 8 p.m., on CBS 3.