Peoria Ballet Tickets

The live orchestra was fantastic. The dancers were excellent too.

I enjoyed the telling of the Nutcracker very much. Very talented local people were performing and I was delighted with everyone's performance. Would definitely go again next year.

While I didn't exactly pan the Nutcracker last year I certainly had comments some felt were more caustic than constructive. It seems they were heard and (predominately) addressed! Too much cache was given to the 'guest dancers' last year and this year the home cast was larger, the choreography was more nuanced and variable, though it still maintained a strong stage left to right bias. The dancers overall were more accomplished, with far more on toe than last year. Even the pipsqueak mice were well rehearsed and enjoyable for the characters they were rather than just "aww"factors. These kids embodied their roles and nary a mouse strayed from character. The multiple specialty dances were a pleasure overall, the Russian was about as exciting as you can get from a youthful cast, with the primary doing a few exceptional moves. I mentioned to the Mrs that in a few more years he'll own that stage rightfully. The Scottish dancer's choreography was flat out under her ability and though it is usually my favorite this year's dancer wasn't given anything to do. Bummer. The seats in the auditorium are way too closely gauged, you have more room in the $20 seats on Southwest. Not the ballet's fault but it does detract from enjoyment when your knees are pressed into the seat ahead and your row has to overlap shoulders to sit. Oh, $5 for a bottled water should be legislated against. The orchestra was excellent, that harpist needs a raise. The droning opening "volunteer of the year"award should have been shortened by several minutes, 3 minutes later names forgotten. The scenery made you remember one of them was responsible for the paints and specials. The growing tree was well done. Costumes this year were a step up as well. 99% of them fit extremely well and looked spectacular all the way back. Spanish dancer's sequin work a good example, I do not recall being impressed by that costume last year at all. The Rat king, had a fun death scene. Our seat section laughed though the audience as a whole did not seem to join us. The final final final Nutcracker spotlight left a bit to be desired. Again it was like the choreographer gave poor Nutty nothing to do, but I acknowledge the headpiece was very limiting for the dancer. Maybe a new design for that head would attach it more firmly to the shoulders and allow for better freedom of movement? The party guests were entertaining, Choreography here again was vastly improved, with several mini plots going on all over the party with the 20-30 dancers engaging to watch as they went from activity to activity, from conversing to dancing, even kids in the background rattling presents. We saw you! The Nutcracker in the lobby, an author selling his kid's book; the cute and entertaining mash-up of the Nutcracker and The Night Before Christmas, was as 'in character' as an author selling his wares could be. Santa walking about the lobby with Mrs. Claus, greeting children and adults alike was a sweet touch; waving from the balcony, popping up in box seats momentarily, assisting patrons to their seats before the show and remaining out of sight/out of mind during the show; you should have him back again, he was good. Several other things were better this year, everyone from parking attendants to security were more cordial and confidence inspiring. Last year there was a live musical group in the lobby. I didn't see that this year. I suppose Santa was the replacement? If so, nuff said. Temperature was a tad warm. Sort of the opposite of last year, and I had adjusted my wardrobe. Oh! Clara! I almost forgot I was saving her comments, you would think that I would have started with her? The young lady did a respectable job of portraying a character younger than the dancer's years. She played the age very well but her dance told of far more years of dance than Clara's years. That little cartwheel, or was it just a round-off? was completely a surprise and expressed volumes of caricature. Bravo. Her hand movements were unmistakable expressionism. Unfortunately her brother, was more vague in what he was communicating. Judging from his dance ability I suppose that goes back to either choreography again, or lack of rehearsal of that particular. From the balconies, their body and hand movements must be a conversation, not just hand flapping. Also it should not be standard 10 year old's ignorance of sign language. These moves must be by design, created and perfected by distant observation, and exacting in portrayal. Or at least they should, after all this is a step above community theater and every aspect should show that. Peoria is a city of 100,000. The Ballet should rise to the level of a good size city ballet. This performance was on par with others I have attended, though not the equal of Boston or New York, it was as good or better than many city ballets. I look forward to seeing what improvements come for it next year.

Wonderful experience!! We were in the balcony and the seats were great. The concessions were very expensive!!

all of us loved the ballet. I did not know that it was put on with local talent. How wonderful for them to experience being on stage.

We loved it. We had been many , many times in the past.

I fell asleep the first hour and was happy to wake up to the intermission. The second half of the show kept me awake. Doubt I will ever see this again. Not very many people bought tickets as more than half the seats were empty. A soda was $8 and a beer $9.25, I had one of each. Needed the beer at intermission to try and survive the rest of the show. Parking was a breeze across the street and was $10. Overall a big waste of money. I think going to festival of lights is more entertaining, should of just enjoyed that instead.. If you ever attend this event, be prepared to have lots of cash in your pocket...

I love taking my granddaughters and family members to see the Nutcracker! A tradition to be experienced yearly!

This was a beautiful performance. I loved the entire show. Our seats were in the second balcony where we could see everything. The performers were excellent. The price was great as well. The only downside is I wanted to go again and it was only a 2 day period.

Great show,my 5 year old had a blast at his first ballet and the civic center did a great job with everything.

Beautiful production with beautiful scenery,lights and costuming. The young dancers were OUT of this world fabulous! We have started a new Christmas tradition!

From the moment we walked in the door through strict security (thank you!), we knew this would be special. We were greetd with a glorious flower display for patrons and especially parents to purchase bouquets for their ballerinas and gifts as well. I attended the Bolshoi in Ukraine years ago, but the quality of the Peoria Ballet production is so incredible, and the quality of the mature dancers tells me Peoria has so much support for the Ballet as well as talent that they can easily equal or exceed the quality of larger city Ballet productions. Congratulations to Peoria Ballet on this production and to Peoria Civic Center for hosting it.

Kudos to a local company comprised of mostly young talent executing a show of this magnitude. The one negative is the 15 minutes of droning on prior to the show giving praise to sponsors and the life history of the volunteer of the year. Acknowledgment in the program would suffice; pick one show if you want to continue with the public presentation.

Our new Christmas Tradition. Loved seeing the Nutcracker with my family and friends!

First time attending. Great show. Fun to watch. Cast was terrific from the youngest to the more experienced. Orchestra worked perfectly with the performance

This was our first time at the Peoria Civic Center and my three daughter’s first time to The Nutcracker. The staff was very helpful in guiding us to our seats. Someone even offered to take a family picture of all of us. The bathrooms were clean. The show was spectacular! We couldn’t have asked for a better first experience.

Peoria Ballet did an outstanding job putting this performance together. The kids all did amazing and it was all so professional and well done.

Wonderful! Wonderful experience. The choreography, ballet dancers, Orchestra were all worth the standing ovation at the end of Sunday's performance as well as Saturday's two performances. Watching this beautiful New York comparison production I was taken to an enchanting 3 hours where all was well in the world. Thank you Peoria Ballet for the most wonderful experience and can't wait for your next ballet. Fabulous!!!!

We found at when entering the security checkpoint that all purses unless clear or the size of a wallet had to be taken back to the car. The only signage was at the security checkpoint- hundreds of people were turned around and had to walk up to 20 minutes back to their car in downtown. This was not properly communicated. Then, the usher wouldn't move people that were in our seat- he said you "can sit over here since it isn't sold out. "

It was a great show and my daughter and I enjoyed it very much.