Yuri Possokhov, Choreographer

Yuri Possokhov danced for 10 years with the Bolshoi Ballet, performing leading roles in the company’s classical and contemporary repertoire. While performing, Possokhov studied choreography and ballet pedagogy at the State College of Theatrical Arts, completing the five-year course in 1990. He was a principal dancer with the Royal Danish Ballet for two years before joining the San Francisco Ballet (SFB) as a principal dancer in 1994. During his 12 years dancing with SFB, he began choreographing. Upon his retirement from dancing in 2006, he joined the artistic staff at San Francisco Ballet as choreographer in residence. He has created 14 ballets for SFB and continues to choreograph new works for the company each season. Possokhov choreographs ballets for companies worldwide. In 2015, his full-length for the Bolshoi Ballet, A Hero of Our Time, was met with critical acclaim, and the company invited him to stage a full-length ballet based on the life of Rudolf Nureyev that premiered in December 2017. For these two ballets, Possokhov received the prestigious Benois de la Danse Award, established by the International Dance Union. Yuri Possokhov is a frequent guest choreographer with Atlanta Ballet. His Classical Symphony, Don Quixote and Firebird are also part of Atlanta Ballet’s repertoire. You can learn more at yuripossokhov.com.

David Finn, Lighting Designer

Finn began his professional career as a lighting designer at age 16 working for the puppeteer Burr Tillstrom and Kukla, Fran & Ollie. David's previous work with Atlanta Ballet includes The Four Seasons, The Exiled, and Camino Real (for which he also completed his first professional scenic design). His design credits for dance include The Nutcracker and Cinderella (Birmingham Royal Ballet), Romeo & Juliette for Sasha Waltz (Paris Opera Ballet), Swan Lake (Bayerisches Staatsballett), and works for renowned choreographers such as Paul Taylor, Twyla Tharp, Merce Cunningham, James Kudelka, José Limón, Helgi Tomasson, Liam Scarlett, Yuri Possokhov, and Dana Reitz, as well as for leading international companies. David was the resident lighting designer for Mikhail Baryshnikov’s White Oak Dance Project from 1993-2000. His opera work includes projects for the Metropolitan Opera, Royal Opera, Paris Opera, La Scala Milan, Salzburg Festival, Lyric Opera of Chicago, New York City Opera, Berlin Staatsoper, Deutsche Oper, La Monnaie (Brussels), Opera de Lyon, Opera Communale (Florence), Het Muziektheater (Amsterdam), Stuttgart Opera, Opera Australia, Santa Fe Opera, Canadian Opera Company, and San Francisco Opera. For film, Finn’s work includes stage lighting for Martin Scorsese’s The Age of Innocence and producer/director of the PBS documentary The Green Monster. David has designed two shows for Cirque du Soleil: ZED in Tokyo and MICHAEL JACKSON ONE in Las Vegas. Future plans include Les Troyens for The Lyric Opera of Chicago, Cosi fan Tutti for Opera Australia, a world premiere of The Little Prince for The National Ballet of Canada, and a world premiere of Frankenstein for The Royal Ballet.

Tom Pye, Scenic Designer

Roundabout Debut. Broadway: Testament of Mary, All My Sons, Top Girls, Cyrano de Bergerac, Glass Menagerie, Medea, Fiddler on the Roof (Tony Nom). West End: A Christmas Carol, Sinatra, Medea. Recent: Invisible Thread (Second Stage, ART); High Society (Old Vic); Platonov, Ivanov, The Seagull (Chichester, National Theatre); John Gabriel Borkman (Abbey Theatre, BAM); Mother Courage, Happy Days, Measure for Measure (Royal National). Opera: Death of Klinghoffer, Eugene Onegin, Così Fan Tutti (MET/ENO); Akhnaten (ENO/LA); Death in Venice (Premio Franco Abbiati).

Finn Ross, Video Designer

Ross trained at Central School of Speech and Drama and designs video and projection for all forms of live performance. He works regularly for English National Opera, credits including Benvenuto Cellini (with Adam Young), The Death of Klinghoffer, Eugene Onegin, The Magic Flute, Simon Boccanegra, The Damnation of Faust, and Don Giovanni. Other opera credits include The Turn of the Screw (Theater an der Wien), Sunset Boulevard (Gothenburg Opera), A Dog’s Heart (Dutch National Opera, La Scala, Milan, ENO and Opéra de Lyon), Knight Crew (Glyndebourne Festival), The Adventures of Mr Brouček (Opera North and Scottish Opera), and Das Portrait (Bregenz Festival).

Ross’s theatre work includes The Curious Incident of the Dog in the Night-time and Greenland (National Theatre), Shun-Kin and The Master and Margarita (Complicite) Sugar Mummies (Royal Court), The Gods Weep (Royal Shakespeare Company), Top Girls (Chichester Festival and Trafalgar Studios), All My Sons (Broadway), Little Otik (Vanishing Point/National Theatre of Scotland), and Die Ringe des Saturn (Schauspielhaus, Cologne). He is a member of the London-based group of video and projection designers Mesmer.

Sandra Woodall, Costume Designer

Woodall has contributed scenic and costume designs to San Francisco Ballet, Frankfurt Ballet, Stuttgart Ballet, Bolshoi Ballet, Georgian National Ballet, The Norwegian National Ballet, the State Opera Ballet of Austria, Dance Theatre of Harlem, Royal Winnipeg Ballet, Houston Ballet, Hubbard Street Dance Project, Singapore Dance Theatre, National Ballet of Finland, and other companies around the world. Recent productions include costume designs for Atlanta Ballet’s Camino Real choreographed by Helen Pickett. Ms. Woodall’s artwork has been shown in solo exhibitions at the Wadsworth Atheneum Museum of Art in Hartford, Connecticut, the San Francisco Museum of Performance and Design, and in many group exhibitions, including the 2011 Wearable Art exhibit in Hong Kong. In 1999 and 2000, she was a Fulbright scholar teaching at what is now the Taiwan National University of the Arts (TNUA). She has contributed designs and visual consultation to many productions in Taiwan and China, including 2009’s stadium-scale opening pageant for the Deaf Olympics, scenic designs for the 100th anniversary-celebration of Taiwan National Day, and in the 2015 scenic and costume design of Winter Journey by Wan Fang and directed by Stan Lai in Beijing.

Garrett Keast, Conductor

Garrett Keast is a Berlin–based American conductor whose career launched with performances of Faust at the Opera National de Paris, the acclaimed production of Bluthaus by Georg Friedrich Haas’s at Oper Bonn and Die Zauberflöte at Deutsche Oper Berlin. Very active as a concert artist, in the last season he conducted Stravinsky’s Le Sacre de Printemps with the Tonkunstler Orchestra of Vienna, a Haydn-Jorg Widmann program with the Belgian National Orchestra in Brussels and Dvorak’s Ninth Symphony with the Orchestre Philharmonique de Strasbourg. He was born in Houston and mentored by Christoph Eschenbach at the Houston Symphony Orchestra before beginning his career at the New York City Opera. In the 2018-19 season, Garrett Keast leads more than 60 performances across Europe and North America. Highlights include performances with the Radio Symphony Orchestra Berlin, New Year’s concerts with the Orchestre National de Lorraine and Romeo and Juliet with the Tonkunstler Orchestra in Vienna. He conducts Hamburg Ballet’s Bernstein Dances at the Festspielhaus Baden-Baden and Staatsoper Hamburg and John Neumeier’s production of Sylvia with the Finnish National Opera and Ballet. He returns to the Royal Danish Ballet for broadcast performances of Giselle in Copenhagen, as well as a tour of Denmark. Additionally, he leads productions of Don Quixote and The Nutcracker with the Hamburg Ballet and a new production of The Nutcracker with Atlanta Ballet. Garrett Keast has conducted opera and ballet productions with the Opera National de Paris (Faust and Swan Lake), Deutsche Oper Berlin (Die Zauberfl ote), Theater Erfurt (Der Fliegender Hollander), Theater Bremen (Rigoletto), Oper Bonn (Bluthaus), Aspen Music Festival (La Bohème), Hamburg Ballet (Bernstein Dances, Mahler’s 10th Symphony, A Midsummer Night’s Dream, Don Quixote, The Nutcracker, Othello, Shakespeare Dances and Tatjana), Royal Danish Ballet (Ballet de Luxe Gala and Giselle), Opera San Antonio (Carmen), and the Fort Worth Opera Festival (Così fan tutte), among many others.

The Nutcracker Costume & Set Sponsors

Presenting Sponsor - The Thalia N. Carlos & Chris M. Carlos Foundation

PNC's The Nutcracker Kids In Step student matinee series - PNC

The Nutcracker - Sarah Kennedy

Lighting Designer - Elizabeth & Howell Adams

Mouse King - Arrow Exterminators

Marie - Atlanta Ballet Corps de Ballet

The Arm Chair - Jan Beaves

Costume Designer - Ginny & Charles Brewer Family Foundation

A Rose - Lynn Cochran-Schroder & Bill Schroder

Dragonflies - Erroll & Elaine Davis

Arabian Female - Vanessa & Robin Delmer

Drosselmeier - The Elster Foundation

A Young Mouse - Nancy Field & Michael Schulder

French Female - Adrienne & Scott Hardesty

Spanish Dancers & the Moon - Bonnie & Terry Herron

The Cabinet - The Home Depot Foundation

The Skier - Joyce Houser, Ph.D.

The Book - Barbara & Eric Joiner

A Snowflake - Susan S. Kettering

A Russian Female - Kathleen & Kirk Knous

Chicks - Carole & Nelson Marchioli

Drosselmeier's Sleigh - Linda & Don Morris

Flying Special Effects - Northside Hospital Star

Backdrop - Outfront Media

A Toy Soldier - Mrs. William A. Parker, Jr.

Flowers - REPAY

Girl Party Child - Danna & Mike Sanders

Toy Theatre - Mr. William F. Snyder

A Russian Female - Dante S. Stephensen

A Rocking Horse - Karen Vereb & Bud Blanton

A Doll - Pam Wakefield

Additional costume and set piece sponsorships available. Please contact Major Gifts Officer Amy Green at agreen@atlantaballet.com or 404.873.5811 x1219.

Atlanta Ballet is grateful to the individual, corporate, and foundation donors who are making this world premiere production possible.

Platinum ($1 million +)
Thalia N. Carlos &  Chris M. Carlos Foundation

Gold ($500,000 - $999,000)
PNC
Sarah Kennedy

Sapphire ($250,000-$499,999)
Jones Day Foundation

Silver ($100,000 - $249,999)
Arrow Exterminators
The Atlanta Journal-Constitution
Erroll & Elaine Davis
The Home Depot Foundation
Outfront Media
The Sara Giles Moore Foundation The Zeist Foundation

Bronze ($50,000 - $99,999)
Anonymous
Atlanta Ballet Corps de Ballet
Ginny & Charles Brewer
The Elster Foundation
The Imlay Foundation
Linda & Don Morris
Northside Hospital
REPAY
Stephanie & Austin Stephens

Supporter ($25,000 - $49,999)
Elizabeth & Howell Adams III
Bonnie & Terry Herron Barbara & Eric Joiner
Ms. Pam Wakefield

Patron ($10,000 - $24,999)
Jan Beaves Vanessa & Robin Delmer
Adrienne & Scott Hardesty
Kathleen & Kirk Knous
Margaret P. McCamish
Dante S. Stephensen

Contributor (under $10,000)
Lynn Cochran-Schroder & Bill Schroder
Ms. Nancy Field & Mr. Michael Schulder
Douglas Hopkins
Susan S. Kettering
Carole & Nelson Marchioli
Mr. William F. Snyder

Friend ($1,000 – $4,999)
Helen & Howard Elkins
Florida & Doug Ellis
Carol Lanier Goodman
Joyce Houser, Ph.D.
Jamila & Whitcliff A. McKnight, Jr.
Danna & Mike Sanders
Mrs. William A. Parker, Jr.
Karen Vereb & Bud Blanton

Up to $1,000
Anonymous
Cynthia Crain, Ed.D & Dwight Lee, Ph.D.
Arrington Davies
Eve Eckardt
Kevin & Paige Feagin
Brian & Amy Howell
Mark & Pat Jackson
Ceci & Holland Johnson
Mariana Laufer
VyVy & Lawrence Lee
Melanie & Chris Leeth
Farris Lewis
Jeanie & Albert Marx
Elizabeth & Chris Morris
Melissa & Thespi Mortimer
Donald & Helen O'Shea
Sara Partin Lys & Michael Paulhus
The Peacock Family
Jill Pryor & Edward Krugman
Kristen Manion Taylor & Jason Taylor
Roberta Taylor & James Hill
Judie & Tom Wilhite

*As of November 30, 2018

Saturday, December 8, 2018 at 7:30pm
Sunday, December 9, 2018 at 7:00pm
Thursday, December 13, 2018 at 7:30pm
Saturday, December 15, 2018 at 2:00pm
Sunday, December 16, 2018 at 2:00pm

Marie - Airi Igarashi
Nutcracker Prince - Sergio Masero-Olarte
Herr Drosselmeier - Nikolas Gaifullin


Sunday, December 9, 2018 at 2:00pm
Saturday, December 15, 2018 at 7:30pm

Marie - Jessica Assef
Nutcracker Prince - Igor Leushin
Herr Drosselmeier - Jacob Bush


Wednesday, December 12, 2018 at 7:30pm
Marie - Jessica Assef
Nutcracker Prince - Igor Leushin
Herr Drosselmeier - Nikolas Gaifullin

Friday, December 14, 2018 at 7:30pm
Marie - Emily Carrico
Nutcracker Prince - Moisés Martín
Herr Drosselmeier - Jordan Leeper

Sunday, December 16, 2018 at 7:00pm

Marie - Emily Carrico
Nutcracker Prince - Moisés Martín
Herr Drosselmeier - Nikolas Gailfullin