Hailed as “the best Nutcracker on the planet” by The Globe and Mail, The National Ballet of Canada’s acclaimed production features 233 performers – 50 dancers, 98 children from Canada’s National Ballet School and high schools all over Toronto, 65 musicians and 20 young singers from VIVA! Youth Singers of Toronto who join The National Ballet of Canada Orchestra for the famous snow scene. The streamed performance of The Nutcracker was captured live at the Four Seasons Centre for the Performing Arts in 2008 and features Principal Dancers Sonia Rodriguez and Piotr Stanczyk as The Sugar Plum Fairy and Peter/The Nutcracker. Earlier this year, the National Ballet made the difficult decision to cancel performances of The Nutcracker for 2020 due to COVID-19, marking the first year since 1955 that the company will not perform this holiday classic live. The Nutcracker is made possible by generous financial support from production underwriters Sandra Pitblado & Jim Pitblado, C.M., Lawrence and Ann Heisey and an anonymous friend of the National Ballet.