9 Things You Didn’t Know About The Kansas City Ballet’s Nutcracker
Here's a look behind-the-scenes at what goes into making the production so spectacular.

photo courtesy of KC Ballet photography brett pruitt & east market studios
1
275–
dancers are in the Nutcracker cast. 212 are children from the Kansas City Ballet School.

photo courtesy of jeremy Theron-Kirby
2
230–
costumes are worn on stage in a single performance.

PHOTO COURTESY OF JEREMY THERON-KIRBY
3
224–
pairs of pointe shoes are worn during the run of the Nutcracker. (Depending on the ballerina a pair of pointe shoes can be “worn through” during a single performance. A professional ballerina can dance through 100-120 pairs of pointe shoes in one season.)

PHOTO COURTESY OF JEREMY THERON-KIRBY
4
142–
pounds of “snow” are dropped over the span of 22 shows.

PHOTO COURTESY OF kc ballet photography brett pruitt & east market studios
5
24–
backdrops with 60 yards of canvas per backdrop (equal to more than 14 football fields) are used during the production.

photo courtesy of kc ballet photography brett pruitt & east market studios
6
8–
dancers are hiding under Mother Ginger’s skirt.

photo courtesy of kc ballet photography brett pruitt
7
120 hours–
is the amount the cast will have rehearsed before the Nutcracker’s first performance at the Kauffman Center.

PHOTO COURTESY OF JEREMY THERON-KIRBY
8
14–
artists using 36 brushes and 283 cans of paint designed and painted the Nutcracker sets.

PHOTO COURTESY OF JEREMY THERON-KIRBY
9
34,600–
was the number of tickets sold to the KCB’s Nutcracker in 2015. It set a Kansas City Ballet record for attendance.

PHOTO COURTESY kc ballet photography brett pruitt & east market studios