Ballet Classic 'The Nutcracker' Comes To Arundel Mills On Sunday

HANOVER, MD — The world-renowned Bolshoi Ballet will return to the silver screen on Sunday, Dec. 23, with its version of Pyotr Tchaikovsky's beloved fairy tale, "The Nutcracker."

In a live broadcast, the timeless holiday classic will be hitting more than 350 movie theaters in the U.S. and Canada, including the Cinemark Egyptian 24 and XD at Arundel Mills.

The ballet masterpiece was commissioned in 1891 in Russia and premiered a week before Christmas the next year. Since arriving in the U.S. in the 1940s, "The Nutcracker" has become one of the nation's most popular productions around the holidays.

Moviegoers and ballet lovers can get their tickets at participating theaters and by clicking here.

The performance by the Moscow-based Bolshoi Ballet will be shown at 12:55 p.m. Sunday at the Cinemark Egyptian 24, at 7000 Arundel Mills Circle in Hanover.

A Christmas Story

Choreographed by Yuri Grigorovich, "The Nutcracker" tells a story about a young girl's Christmas Eve and her awakening to romance, the world, and other aspects of adulthood.

This rendition of "Nutcracker" stars the Bolshoi's first soloist, Margarita Shrainer, as Marie and principal dancer Semyon Chudin as the Nutcracker Prince.

Dianna Mesion works for BY Experience, the North American distributor of the Bolshoi Ballet in Cinema series. She said it's rare to see a Bolshoi Ballet performance in the U.S.

"This will be the first time in four years that the Bolshoi is doing a live broadcast of 'The Nutcracker,'" Mesion said. "The rarity lies in that the Bolshoi hardly travels to the U.S., so this is a fantastic opportunity to see one of the world's most revered ballet companies.

"Every year, we are continuing to see the growing impact of these performances in cinemas, with audiences of all ages attending," she said.

The Bolshoi Theatre of Russia was founded in 1776. To this day, it remains a fixture of Russian culture. With more than 250 dancers, the Bolshoi Ballet is one of the largest and most respected ballet companies in the world.

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Patch's Sue Wood contributed to this report.

Images via BY Experience