Robert Wersinger

A group of 12 teenagers from various backgrounds enroll at the American Ballet Academy in New York to make it as ballet dancers and each one deals with the problems and stress of training and getting ahead in the world of dance.

On Christmas Eve, a little girl named Marie falls asleep and dreams herself into a fantastic world in which her toys become larger than life. She meets up with the Nutcracker Prince who takes her on a journey to his kingdom and defends her from the Mouse King.

Director-choreographer Susan Stroman and librettist John Weidman construct an evening of three dance plays. The first deals with a "swinger" couple and their servant, whose sexual games suddenly change; the second finds an unhappy 1950s wife imagining herself the belle of a restaurant she attends with her abusive husband; and the final piece allows a suicidal executive to find life again chasing after a mysterious girl in a dance bar.