DANCE DATA PROJECT® EXPANDS ITS RESEARCH FOOTPRINT BY RELEASING FIRST STUDY EXAMINING NUTCRACKER AND HOLIDAY PRODUCTIONS IN U.S. BASED COMPANIES
Northfield, IL | February 10, 2025 | Dance Data Project® (DDP) has released its first report analyzing The Nutcracker and other holiday productions. This mini report or “Data Byte” covers the 2023/2024 and 2024/2025 seasons. The findings reveal an overwhelming dominance of male choreographers, particularly in the Largest 50 ballet companies, despite some growth in opportunities for female choreographers in mid-sized and smaller companies. The Nutcracker generates a substantial portion of annual revenue for ballet companies, and these disparities have lasting financial and artistic consequences. During the 2023/2024 season, the Largest 50 presented a total of 775 performances, with companies averaging 19.1 performances, further highlighting the significant reliance on this single production within the industry.
“This is DDP’s first study to examine The Nutcracker and holiday productions, which are not only cultural cornerstones but also financial powerhouses for ballet companies,” said DDP President and Founder Elizabeth ‘Liza’ Yntema. She continued: “If both the canon and the limited new commissions are almost exclusively awarded to men, little will change. The persistence of these imbalances reveals a systemic issue that affects not just artistic representation, but also financial equity in the field.” In the 2023/2024 season, 74.4% of Nutcracker and holiday production choreographers in the Largest 50 companies were men, with similar trends in the Next 50 (34.0%) and Additional 50 (46.3%). These figures remain consistent in the 2024/2025 season, where male choreographers account for 81.0% of Nutcrackers in the Largest 50, 39.6% in the Next 50, and 43.6% in the Additional 50.
According to Bachtrack, The Nutcracker was the most performed ballet in the world in both 2023 and 2024. The Nutcracker significantly contributes to companies’ financial stability. The most recent study of the revenue generated by The Nutcracker was published by Dance USA in 2018. In recent years, approximately 45% of New York City Ballet’s annual ticket revenues have been generated by The Nutcracker. More recently, it was reported that The Washington Ballet earned $3.4 million in ticket revenue from their 2024 run of The Nutcracker.
While The Nutcracker generates significant earned revenue, the cost of producing a new large-scale ballet has become a major investment that limits opportunities for emerging choreographers and highlights a stark gender disparity in choreographic credits for this pillar annual tradition. Recent examples include Orlando Ballet’s $3.6 million estimated cost for a new production in 2023, the Joffrey Ballet’s $4 million reimagining in 2016, and Kansas City Ballet’s $2 million production in 2015– each choreographed by men. These large-scale investments in new productions also create opportunities for set, costume, and lighting designers, puppeteers, and other creatives, who, chosen by the male choreographers – are often almost exclusively men.
DDP notes Amy Hall Garner’s The Nutcracker for Baltimore School for the Arts stands out as a positive example of a woman being given a long-term development process for a new production—an opportunity that remains rare for female choreographers at major companies. DDP also examined whether productions were choreographed by living or deceased artists. In both the 2023/2024 and 2024/2025 seasons, all works solely choreographed by deceased choreographers were by men. Among living choreographers, women made up just 27.4% in 2023/2024 and 27.8% in 2024/2025, while men comprised 52.2% and 53.9%, respectively.
Additionally, this Data Byte tracks performance frequency. In the 2023/2024 season, the Largest 50 companies presented a total of 775 performances, averaging 19.1 per company. DDP determined that productions choreographed by men were performed significantly more often, with an average of 21.2 performances per work, compared to just 9.8 performances for women-choreographed productions. The disparity continued in the 2024/2025 season, where male-choreographed productions averaged 20.2 performances, while female-choreographed productions averaged only 8.3.
“Legacy productions like The Nutcracker are not only cultural staples but also economic lifelines for ballet companies,” said DDP Research Lead Jenna Magrath. “It’s crucial to recognize that these productions are expected money makers for companies. Yet, despite its financial and artistic significance, DDP’s thorough and targeted research shows that women continue to be underrepresented in choreographic leadership.”
For more information and to read the full Data Byte, visit dancedataproject.com/research.
