The Nutcracker Ballet 2023

Island Dance Academy and the Palace Theater present “The Nutcracker”, with performances on Friday December 8 and Saturday December 9 at 7 p.m., and 2 p.m. on Sunday December 10. Featuring whirling twirling ballerinas, tap dancing soldiers, sword fighting combatants and more, this is a long-time holiday tradition for Hilo, first started by Island Dance Academy’s director, Suen Hughes, in 1989.

And, as a special bonus, Rick Mazurowski will introduce the shows with Christmas music played on the Mighty Palace Pipe Organ. Tiffany Yamashita stars as the Sugarplum Fairy, with Skylee Hiraki as Clara and Lexington Trooien as her Nutcracker Prince. Kiara Kimata dazzles in her role as Spanish Chocolate, and Airi Broomell sparkles as the Dew Drop Fairy.

Along with new choreography and the reworking of traditional dances by Megan Kimata & Kira Okazaki. The production is ever changing, adapting to the dancers’ strengths, including our new comical tap dancing cooks.