The best dance shows in NYC this month

Austin McCormick and his risqué neo-Baroque dance-theater group Company XIV present a lavish erotic reimagining of the classic holiday tale, complete with circus performers, operatic singers and partial nudity. The word nutcracker has customarily conjured innocent wonder; now be ready to add glitter pasties, stripper poles and comically large stuffed penises to the toys in wonderland. Definitely leave the kids at home.  RECOMMENDED: Company XIV’s Nutcracker Rouge will make you blush

George Balanchine's magical 1954 production, set to Tchaikovsky's timeless score, includes the full New York City Ballet company, two casts of School of American Ballet students, scenery by Rouben Ter-Arutunian, costumes by Karinska and lighting by Mark Stanley, after Ronald Bates's original concept. The show is a magical occasion: Along with a one-ton Christmas tree that grows from 12 to 40 feet, there's a snowstorm of blizzard proportions and a Mother Ginger with a nine-foot-wide skirt. In the end, however, Balanchine's choreography is what holds it all together. It's enchanting, and it never grows old.    

New York City Children’s Theater welcomes kids to the nuthouse in company founder Barbara Zinn Krieger's 50-minuite adaptation of the holiday adventure story, specifically aimed at children ages 3 to 8. Kristen Brooks Sandler directs and choreographs the show, which stars Gabbie Ballesteros, Quincy Southerland, Morgana Mauney and Adam Wedesky.

Brooklyn Ballet's take on The Nutcracker, choreographed by artistic director Lynn Parkerson, emphasizes cultural and artistic diversity. Alongside sequences that hew to the classic 19th-century tradition are interludes featuring street dance, flamenco, belly dancing, Chinese dance, hoop dance, hip-hop and the Hopak, a traditional Ukrainian dance. The 2025 edition features Michael “Big Mike” Fields as a pop-and-lock Drosselmeyer amd Brian "HallowDreamz" Henry as a krumping Rat King, along with Aliesha Bryan, the Eva Dance Studio, Sira Melikian, ShanDien LaRance, George Sanders and Dance Theatre of Harlem alums Kamala Saara, Derek Brockington, Kouadio Davis and Crystal Serrano. Live music is proviced by beatboxer Baba Israel, violinist Zafir Tawil, accordionist Mikhail Smirnoff, drummer Paula Green and dizi floutist Yimin Miao.

Caleb Teicher swings back to the Joyce with a holiday edition of their exuberant 2021 show, a partly improvisational celebration of the Lindy Hop as re-imagined by Teicher and collaborators Evita Arce, LaTasha Barnes, Nathan Bugh and big-band leader Eyal Vilner. Audience members can join the fun onstage in the finale.

Dances Patrelle offers its 29th annual performance of Francis Patrelle's The Yorkville Nutcracker, set in 1895 New York and featuring adorable child dancers alongside the professionals. This year's edition once again stars Miriam Miller as the Sugar Plum Fairy, joined by her fellow New York City Ballet principal Tyler Angle as the Cavalier.

Nimbus Dance’s annual twist on The Nutcracker guides audiences through the streets, parks and sewers of Jersey City in a production that pairs 15 professional dancers with more than 80 young perfomers. Nimbus leader Samuel Pott directs and choreographs the show, which is set to a jazzy variation on Tchaikovsky's score and includes animated projections by Laia Cabrera and Isabelle Duverger. The 2025 production spends a weekend at Newark's NJPAC before returning to the company's home base in Jersey City. 

Choreographer David Parker and his Bang Group reprise their neovaudevillian version of The Nutcracker, a comedic deconstruction of the holiday classic that mixes tap, ballet, contemporary dance, disco and bubble-wrap stomping. Each performance is followed by a Winter Wonderland Afterparty that includes hot chocolate, sweets, photo ops and a tap-dancing station.

As part of its Once Upon a Ballet series, which is aimed at young children, NYTB presents its annual hour-long Art Nouveau version of the holiday ballet, complete with clockwork elves and an owl that flies over the audience. The set design is by Gillian Bradshaw-Smith and the costumes by Sylvia Taalsohn Nolan. (In addition to its annual run at the Florence Gould Theater, the company is also performing a 3pm matinee on December 13 at Queens College's Kupferberg Center.)