It is unlikely for a theatrical production to run for 50 years. Broadway’s longest-running show, at 35 years, was The Phantom of the Opera, an overnight success and cultural phenomenon. For a ballet like The Nutcracker, whose opening reviews at its 1892 St. Petersburg premiere included such scathing criticism as, “It’s a pity that so much good music is wasted on such nonsense,” to enjoy its 50^th anniversary in Flint is remarkable. More remarkable still is how rare a gem FIM’s production is, thanks to its deep roots and community connections.

After its poor reception in Russia, The Nutcracker found a friendlier welcome in the United States, after George Balanchine’s seminal version for New York City Ballet charmed audiences in 1954. By the late 1960s, regional versions had sprung up across the country and the ballet, with Tchaikovsky’s famous score, was well on its way to becoming a cherished holiday tradition.

Flint was no exception to this trend. Gayla Zukevich, an El Paso, TX native with an incredible ballet upbringing from the likes of the great Ballets Russes de Monte Carlo, founded the FIM Ballet Workshop in 1974. Like Balanchine and his colleague Lincoln Kirstein, who famously uttered, “But first, a school,” Zukevich felt it was important to nurture a ballet school in Flint to train professional dancers. When her dancers were ready to perform in a large-scale production, Zukevich said, “The Nutcracker was a natural next step. [The choreography] can encompass every level of dancer.”

Maestro William Byrd, the first professional conductor of the Flint Symphony Orchestra, was a great inspiration to Zukevich. He dreamed of collaborating with her to bring a full-length ballet to the stage. “He had a dream that the performing arts were more than just one,” Zukevich remembers. Tragically, Maestro Byrd died before seeing this idea come to fruition. Ronald Ondrejka took up the baton for the FSO at The Nutcracker’s 1975 premiere at Whiting Auditorium, with Zukevich in the dual roles of Director and Sugarplum Fairy. The legacy of this collaboration is 50 years of live music alongside the spectacle of dancing, sets, and costumes. Performers and audience members who have grown up with the FIM production may not realize it, but the accompaniment of a full symphony orchestra has grown increasingly rare over the years, even for top ballet companies, due to high costs.

For The Nutcracker’s entire run, students have danced alongside professional dancers, creating mentorship bonds throughout the generations of performers. When Karen Mills Jennings, one of Zukevich’s proteges and a dancer with Ballet Michigan, took over the directorship of The Nutcracker in 1992, she began cultivating connections with prestigious companies whose dancers could represent the possibilities of classical ballet to Flint’s dancers and audiences. The cultural diversity of the cast has contributed to the production’s lasting success in Genesee County.

Dance Theatre of Harlem, founded by New York City Ballet principal dancer Arthur Mitchell at the height of the Civil Rights Movement, became a throughline in Flint’s Nutcracker, with dancers gracing the stage in principal roles and returning to Flint to teach master classes, stage ballets, and cast student Nutcracker roles for the FSPA Dance Department. When DTH went on hiatus in 2004 due to financial constraints, Principal Dancer Kevin Thomas, a veteran performer in the FIM Nutcracker, founded Collage Dance Collective in Memphis, TN. Thomas and his dancers returned to perform in Flint for the next two decades. Collage dancers like Brandye Lee inspired FSPA students with their performances: notably, Ashton Edwards, now a rising star with Pacific Northwest Ballet, who said, “[Lee, as Clara]…just had this genuine joy and enthusiasm onstage in that beautiful pink dress. It looked like a fairy tale and it was never out of the question, I just knew it was possible.” Edwards will return to the Whiting stage as the Sugarplum Fairy this year.

For many in the audience, returning to FIM’s Nutcracker feels like unpacking their favorite holiday decorations year after year. The giant Christmas ornament that recedes into the rafters as the Overture begins to play; Clara’s pink nightgown billowing as the Little Mice spin her around, reaching for her Nutcracker; snow falling softly as a choir of voices beckon Clara and the Nutcracker Prince into the Land of Sweets on a magical sleigh: all these visual highlights seem timeless, yet the production has evolved.

The current production team includes Dave Thompson as Stage Manager, Doug Mueller as Lighting Designer, Ann Kessler as Costume Designer and Elizabeth Philippi as Assistant to the Artistic Director and Prop Director. Their tenures within this production amount to over a century of combined experience. Each detail is carefully considered: the large gift boxes that the party guests bring to the Stahlbaums’ Christmas party are wrapped using fabrics from the costumes in Act 2, each representing a different dance from the Land of Sweets.

Indeed, 50 years is a long time. But the magic of Nutcracker comes as much from the parent volunteers who apply each red soldier cheek and mouse whisker onto little faces as it does from the Sugarplum Fairy herself. It comes from directorship of the production passing from mentor to student not once but twice: Zukevich to Jennings, and Jennings to current director Tara Gragg, an FSPA Dance graduate who danced each role from Little Mouse to Dew Drop during her time as a student.

As former FSPA dancer Joi Price described, “It was such a privilege to be on a stage the size of Whiting Auditorium in a fully produced, full-length ballet. I didn’t understand that at the time, but I knew it was special to put on my circle-red cheeks, dye my ballet shoes brown, and be on the stage with my friends that I did pliés with every week. I took what I learned in The Nutcracker to Broadway and beyond. Over four decades later, being in The Nutcracker remains a treasured experience for me.”

Thanks to this strong foundation and with community support, Flint can treasure The Nutcracker for many years to come.