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Xin Ying in Martha Graham’s Immigrant
Photograph: Courtesy Christopher Jones | Immigrant
Photograph: Courtesy Christopher Jones

The best dance shows in NYC this month

From ballet to hip hop and contemporary performance, New York's best dance shows offer plenty to choose from

Adam Feldman
Written by Adam Feldman
Theater and Dance Editor, Time Out USA
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For dance lovers, New York City always offers good reasons to get moving. If your taste runs to classical ballet, you can get your fill from New York City Ballet or American Ballet Theatre at Lincoln Center. For more modern fare, visit the Joyce Theatre, New York Live Arts, New York City Center, BAM or the Baryshnikov Arts Center. Looking for avant-garde work? You'll find it at the Skirball Center, the Chocolate Factory or Abrons Arts Center—and that's not to mention hip hop, international pageants, dance theater, Broadway musicals, experimental performance art and much more. Here are some of the best dance shows to check out in the next few weeks.

RECOMMENDED: The top New York attractions

Best dance shows in NYC this month

Company XIV: Nutcracker Rouge

  • Dance
  • Burlesque
  • Bushwick
  • price 3 of 4
  • Recommended
Company XIV: Nutcracker Rouge
Company XIV: Nutcracker Rouge
Photograph: Courtesy David Burch
Austin McCormick and his risqué neo-Baroque dance-theater group Company XIV present a lavish erotic reimagining of the classic holiday tale, complete with circus performers, operatic singers and partial nudity. The word nutcracker has customarily conjured innocent wonder; now be ready to add glitter pasties, stripper poles and comically large stuffed penises to the toys in wonderland. Definitely leave the kids at home.  RECOMMENDED: Company XIV’s Nutcracker Rouge will make you blush
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New York City Ballet: George Balanchine’s The Nutcracker

  • Dance
  • Ballet
  • Upper West Side
  • price 4 of 4
  • Recommended
New York City Ballet: George Balanchine’s The Nutcracker
New York City Ballet: George Balanchine’s The Nutcracker
Photograph: Courtesy Paul Kolnik
George Balanchine's magical 1954 production, set to Tchaikovsky's timeless score, includes the full New York City Ballet company, two casts of School of American Ballet students, scenery by Rouben Ter-Arutunian, costumes by Karinska and lighting by Mark Stanley, after Ronald Bates's original concept. The show is a magical occasion: Along with a one-ton Christmas tree that grows from 12 to 40 feet, there's a snowstorm of blizzard proportions and a Mother Ginger with a nine-foot-wide skirt. In the end, however, Balanchine's choreography is what holds it all together. It's enchanting, and it never grows old.    
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My First Nutcracker

  • Dance
  • Ballet
  • Hell's Kitchen
  • price 2 of 4
  • Recommended
My First Nutcracker
My First Nutcracker
Photograph: Courtesy Kristen Brooks Sandler
New York City Children’s Theater welcomes kids to the nuthouse in company founder Barbara Zinn Krieger's 50-minuite adaptation of the holiday adventure story, specifically aimed at children ages 3 to 8. Kristen Brooks Sandler directs and choreographs the show, which stars Gabbie Ballesteros, Quincy Southerland, Morgana Mauney and Adam Wedesky.
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Nimbus Dance: Jersey City Nutcracker

  • Dance
  • Ballet
  • New Jersey
  • price 2 of 4
  • Recommended
Nimbus Dance: Jersey City Nutcracker
Nimbus Dance: Jersey City Nutcracker
Photograph: Courtesy Nimbus Dance
Nimbus Dance’s annual twist on The Nutcracker guides audiences through the streets, parks and sewers of Jersey City in a production that pairs 15 professional dancers with more than 80 young perfomers. Nimbus leader Samuel Pott directs and choreographs the show, which is set to a jazzy variation on Tchaikovsky's score and includes animated projections by Laia Cabrera and Isabelle Duverger. The 2025 production spends a weekend at Newark's NJPAC before returning to the company's home base in Jersey City. 
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New York Theatre Ballet: Keith Michael's The Nutcracker

  • Dance
  • Ballet
  • Queens
  • price 2 of 4
  • Recommended
New York Theatre Ballet: Keith Michael's The Nutcracker
New York Theatre Ballet: Keith Michael's The Nutcracker
Photograph: Courtesy Julieta Cervantes
As part of its Once Upon a Ballet series, which is aimed at young children, NYTB presents its annual hour-long Art Nouveau version of the holiday ballet, complete with clockwork elves and an owl that flies over the audience. The set design is by Gillian Bradshaw-Smith and the costumes by Sylvia Taalsohn Nolan. (In addition to its annual run at the Florence Gould Theater, the company is also performing a 3pm matinee on December 13 at Queens College's Kupferberg Center.)
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The New York Nutcracker

  • Dance
  • Burlesque
  • Upper West Side
  • Recommended
The New York Nutcracker
The New York Nutcracker
Photograph: Courtesy Lincoln Center
For just one night, burlesque star Pearls Daily’s decidedly grown-up twist on the holiday classic shimmies its way into Lincoln Center's David Rubinstein Atrium. The show reimagines Clara’s journey as a downtown-meets-uptown fever dream set on Christmas Eve in a Harlem apartment. Cabaret, burlesque, comedy, dance and original shadow puppetry all come out to play in a free 90-minute spectacular that’s guided—sometimes gently, sometimes not—by Tchaikovsky’s score.
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