By Debra Cash

The elements of Urban Nutcracker have remained the same over the decades: a mix of classical, street, and global dance genres, buoyed by a medley featuring Tchaikovsky and Duke Ellington’s take on Tchaikovsky’s classic score.

Anthony Williams’ Urban Nutcracker at the Boch Center Shubert Theatre December 13-21. There is also a series of community- and library-based Urban Nutcracker events  through December 7. The version taped for American Public Television with a half-hour “behind the scenes” documentary is available through the PBS app

Tony Williams, Artistic Director & creator of the Urban Nutcracker. Photo: courtesy of the artist

There were so many boys. For ballet. Tony Williams couldn’t believe his eyes.

In 2000, ballet dancer Tony Williams called an audition at a church in Jamaica Plain and 17 boys showed up. They’d been drawn by the teachers at his new school: Ricardo Foster, who was teaching hip-hop, and Khalid Hill, who was teaching tap. And Williams thought to himself, why not put on a show?

That show was Urban Nutcracker, now celebrating its 25th-anniversary season.

Anthony Williams grew up in the Bromley Heath housing project, the athletic oldest son of a Black American soldier and his Italian war bride. He grew up to be the first Black principal dancer in Boston Ballet, although he now prefers to identify himself as biracial to honor his mother and her journey as an immigrant who arrived here not speaking English.

He remembers that in 1961 or 1962 he was interested in taking ballet classes, but ballet for boys was so stigmatized that he felt he had to swear a friend to secrecy.

His first professional performance — at age 18 — was with the predecessor of the Boston Ballet, New England Civic Ballet: he danced in the Boston Public Garden next to the Swan Boats in an abbreviated version of La Fille Mal Gardee. He danced Trepak (the Russian variation) in his first Nutcracker in 1964, at a time when the dancers may have carried union cards, but they had to sign their paychecks back to the company. There was a while where he lived in the dance studio, sleeping on a mattress on the floor.

A scene from the 2024 production of Urban Nutcracker. Photo: Peter Paradise

But here he was, years after his performing career (which included a stint at the Joffrey Ballet and international companies) ended, and boys were showing up to dance. He took the plunge and booked the Strand Theater for three performances, relying on a budget so close to the bone that he asked the kids in Act One just to bring their own clothes as costumes. To his shock and delight, that 2001 holiday show sold out.

“It was very grassroots, but it had a spirit, it had a soul,” he remembered one recent morning before classes at Tony Williams Dance Center in JP started up for the day. “I had two stars from Dance Theatre of Harlem, Kellye Saunders as Sugar Plum and Donald Williams as Cavalier, and they just glowed. And Michael Shannon was the perfect Drosselmeyer.”

The elements of Urban Nutcracker have remained the same over the decades: a mix of classical, street, and global dance genres, buoyed by a medley featuring Tchaikovsky and Duke Ellington’s take on Tchaikovsky’s classic score. It’s an unabashedly multicultural show that celebrates the diversity of Boston’s neighborhoods and highlights performances by young people while exposing them to visiting adult guest artists. Williams has developed special versions along the way, including a popular LGBTQ+ inclusive version where Clara and Fritz’s parents are a same-sex couple, and this season, Boston drag artist Patty Bourrée makes an appearance.

A scene from the 2024 production of Urban Nutcracker. Photo: Peter Paradise

Williams admits to not leaving well enough alone: the show is always changing up. While some things remain the same — Khalid Hill from the original cast is returning and longtime cast member, former Boston Ballet principal and Boston Conservatory teacher Gianni DiMarco is alternating as Drosselmeyer with the debuting Junichi Fukuda — the adult dancers include one former member of the Boston Celtics dance team and a cheerleader for the Chargers. The show is double cast, because almost 150 young people — from dance schools as far away as New Hampshire and Rhode Island — showed up wanting to be part of it.

They haven’t been unveiled yet, but for this special anniversary year, the company has spiffed up its sets and costumes. Janie Howland designed a new set that retains Urban Nutcracker’s nod to Boston landmarks including the State House dome and “Make Way for Ducklings” statues, but as built by Wooden Kiwi, which has fabricated the sets across prior years, this one promises to be easier to maneuver. Alexandra Arruda collaborated with Rebecca Cross to bring back the spirit and color of Cross’s original costume designs. From 2001’s initial shoestring budget, Urban Nutcracker’s budget has climbed to around $750,000.

“This year it finally dawned on me that the DNA of Urban Nutcracker is in my mixed cultural and racial background,” Williams says. The CITGO sign on the Urban Nutcracker horizon tells Bostonians that the city is a place where, like Tony Williams, they belong, and where they have a chance to dream sweet — and maybe even magical — dreams.

Debra Cash is a Founding Contributing Writer to The Arts Fuse and a member of its Board. She also serves as a member of City Ballet of Boston’s Advisory Board. In 2019, while she was Executive Director of Boston Dance Alliance, Tony Williams received the 2019 Dr. Michael Shannon Dance Champion Award, named in memory of the “Dancing Doctor” who had performed as the Urban Nutcracker’s Drosselmeyer.