THE GREAT RUSSIAN NUTCRACKER Will Come to The State Theatre

Moscow Ballet's Great Russian Nutcracker returns to Easton for two shows at the historic State Theatre on Sunday, December 8th.

Show times are 2:00PM & 6:00PM. Tickets are $43/$38/$33 (children 12 & under) and can be purchased by visiting the State Theatre Box Office, 453 Northampton Street, Easton, by calling 1-800-999-STATE, 610.252.3132 or online at www.statetheatre.org. Sponsored by 100.7 WLEV, 790AM WAEB, B104, The Morning Call, WDIY 88.1 FM and Lehigh Valley Press.

All the world is on stage in Moscow Ballet's Great Russian Nutcracker, a holiday tradition across the United States and Canada. Featuring the best traditional and innovative artists on stage and behind the scenes, an international team presents the Moscow Ballet Gift of Christmas Tour. Fanciful flying puppets created in South Africa include the Dove of Peace, the Firebird and the new Peacock, with a tail opening eight feet across to majestically reveal its vibrant colors. Theatrical designer Valentin Fedorov, prodigy of the Bolshoi Theater's acclaimed Valery Leventhal, creates the 12-foot-tall dancing Unicorn, Elephant, Bull and Bear puppets. A European style Toy Theatre and rod puppets, which foretell the ballet's story, were created in Prague, a city with centuries long history of puppetry. From St Petersburg, the birthplace of Russian ballet, come Moscow Ballet's period-perfect costumes and hand-painted sets created by Wes Anderson concept designer Carl Sprague. Rose-shooting cannons and a Hurdy Gurdy man, with dancing ballerina as an ornamental touch, are a couple of the finishing touches of the holiday ballet. Three companies of 36 award-winning Russian ballerinas and danseurs each, and Ballet Masters hailing from Moscow, Kyoto and Odessa, combine to create unforgettable performances of the Great Russian Nutcracker. Audiences are invited to share in the international celebration of imagination and harmony this holiday season.

Moscow Ballet - 2019 marks the 27th annual North American tour of Moscow Ballet's Great Russian Nutcracker, Swan Lake, Romeo and Juliet and more classic Russian ballets. Moscow Ballet's unique "Dance with Us' program brings the rare opportunity of auditioning, rehearsing, and performing with a professional, international touring ballet company in the Great Russian Nutcracker and other classic Russian story ballets to generations of American ballet students! This continues in Easton as student dancers from the PA Classical Ballet will be performing with the company as part of the show!

Principal dancers include Iryna Borysova, recipient of Bronze from Kiev's International Ballet Competition; Alexandra Elagina noted as "brimful with feeling" by NYTimes Chief Dance Critic Alastair Macaulay; Natalia Gubanova, graduate of the St Petersburg Vaganova Ballet Academy. Kostyantyn Vinovoy has been named Honored Artist of Ukraine; Rustem Imangaliyev won Best Arabesque at Russia's International Ballet Competition in Perm.