We are sad to announce that due to continued uncertainty around COVID-19 and the severe limitations on crowds in theatres, we have made the difficult decision to cancel all performances in 2020, including The Nutcracker. We are so disappointed that we won’t share live performances with you as soon as we’d like, but our audiences’ and artists’ safety is our main priority.
We have been planning and re-planning to create a 2021 season that will allow for live performances. With the recent announcements from Governor DeWine, we hope we can present new works beginning March of 2021 for small audiences in our onsite black box theatre. We will continue to look for more opportunities as limitations improve, and theatres reopen entirely. Stay tuned as we will be announcing more regarding the spring season over time.
We know canceling The Nutcracker is heartbreaking and will affect not only our dancers, crew, musicians, staff and academy students but also the 30,000 audience members that see The Nutcracker every year. With a cast of over 200 dancers alone and rehearsals that generally start in September, keeping everyone socially-distanced and healthy just does not seem feasible right now. We will miss the Ohio Theatre, the stage and all of you this year.
The Nutcracker is a tradition that Columbus audiences have been enjoying since 1977. Many of you have expressed that it just doesn’t feel like the holidays until you’ve seen The Nutcracker. With that in mind, please continue to visit The Nutcracker page throughout the holiday season for fun crafts, events and videos.
We know many of you are aware how important The Nutcracker is to BalletMet financially. Even though this is a difficult situation, we will do additional fundraising to help address this loss. You will be hearing soon about Keep Us Dancing, our comprehensive campaign for community support due to these uncertain times. We hope you will be willing to help us spread the word about this campaign.
Our Columbus community has been incredibly supportive, and we are so appreciative of you. We know that being off the stage is not what any of us would dream could have happened, but we will be back, and we will continue to create art wherever we can.
We still believe that art can change the world. We can’t wait to be with you again.
–Edwaard Liang (Artistic Director) and Sue Porter (Executive Director)