UNCSA’s ‘The Nutcracker’ presented by Flow Automotive opens Dec. 6 at the Tanger Center in Greensboro

A beloved holiday tradition will return to the Piedmont Triad shortly after Thanksgiving when UNCSA stages its 2024 production of “The Nutcracker” at the Steven Tanger Center for the Performing Arts in Greensboro. Beginning Friday, Dec. 6, through Sunday, Dec. 8, UNCSA will present five performances of “The Nutcracker” at the Tanger Center for a second year, while its home theater, the Stevens Center in Winston-Salem, undergoes a comprehensive renovation.

Performances are Friday, Dec. 6, at 7:30 p.m.; Saturday, Dec. 7, at noon and 7:30 p.m.; and Sunday, Dec. 8, at 1 and 6:30 p.m. Ticket prices begin at $39 and can be purchased at TangerCenter.com/Nutcracker. Optional upgrades include on-site VIP parking, Lee & Wrangler Lounge access and the Tanger Center’s pre-event Prelude Dining experience for select performances. More information about “The Nutcracker” can be found at uncsa.edu/nutcracker.

Proceeds from “The Nutcracker” support student scholarships at UNCSA.

This year’s production will feature exciting choreography by talented UNCSA School of Dance faculty member Ilya Kozadayev, an international, award-winning dancer and choreographer. More than 100 ballet, contemporary and Preparatory Dance students will perform.

“Last year’s performances at the Tanger Center were magical for our students and audiences alike,” said Endalyn T. Outlaw, dean of the School of Dance and executive director of “The Nutcracker.” “We’re thrilled to return for a second year and invite guests from across the Piedmont Triad to experience the wonder of ‘The Nutcracker’ once again. There’s truly nothing like it to inspire the holiday spirit!”

An accomplished conductor, Chancellor Brian Cole will conduct the UNCSA Symphony Orchestra for all performances, as he did in 2023. Cole, who joined UNCSA as dean of the School of Music in 2016, has led orchestras and operas throughout the United States, Europe, South America and the Caribbean.

“In 2023, we set records for attendance and gross ticket sales at the Tanger Center,” said UNCSA Chancellor Brian Cole. “Nearly 17,000 tickets were distributed across all performances, including tickets for more than 2,500 schoolchildren from Forsyth and Guilford counties. With a capacity more than twice that of the Stevens Center, the Tanger Center allowed us to reach a larger audience, and both matinees nearly sold out. We look forward to welcoming audiences back to this beautiful venue to experience the magic of ‘The Nutcracker’ again this year.”

Guest artist Penny Jacobus returns as guest lighting designer.

The UNCSA schools of Dance, Design & Production and Music collaborate annually to produce “The Nutcracker.” 

Temporarily staging “The Nutcracker” at the nearby Tanger Center offers students the unique opportunity to tour, set up and perform in a state-of-the-art, 3,000-seat venue just a short distance from UNCSA.

Presented for the first time on Dec. 10, 1966, in Reynolds Auditorium in Winston-Salem, the UNCSA “Nutcracker” production has since been reimagined, recreated and refreshed numerous times.

Flow Automotive is the presenting sponsor of “The Nutcracker.”

Photos for download available here.

Choreographer and Director Ilya Kozadayev

Ilya Kozadayev, originally from St. Petersburg, Russia, received his dance training from Vaganova Ballet Academy; School of American Ballet; Academy of Colorado Ballet; and John Cranko Ballet Academy in Stuttgart, Germany. Kozadayev danced professionally, performing an array of international repertoire, as a soloist with Colorado Ballet, Pittsburgh Ballet Theatre, Houston Ballet and as a dancer with Boston Ballet. Kozadayev was a winner of the New York International Ballet Competition. He began choreographing for Boston Ballet’s Raw Dance and went on to create ballets for Houston Ballet’s choreographic showcase and original work for Houston Ballet II, Kansas City Ballet, Festival Ballet Providence (now Ballet RI), Milwaukee Ballet II, Oklahoma Festival Ballet, Ballet Arkansas, Tulsa Ballet II, Contemporary Dance Oklahoma, University of Utah School of Dance, and UNCSA, among others.

In 2015, Kozadayev won the “Visions Choreography Competition.” In 2017, he created an original version of “Romeo and Juliet” for Festival Ballet Providence that Broadway World hailed as “nothing short of a masterpiece, an absolute triumph for the dancers and artistic team involved in its creation.” Kozadayev’s original choreography has been performed in the United States, Germany, Austria and France. He was a finalist in the National Choreographers Initiative. In 2019, his original choreography for UNCSA was performed at Lincoln Center for the Youth America Grand Prix gala. In 2020, Kozadayev co-directed, wrote and choreographed a film version of “The Nutcracker” for UNCSA during the COVID-19 pandemic, collaborating with three other arts schools on campus in addition to the School of Dance. He went on to expand the 30-minute choreography for the film into a full-length, two-act production for UNCSA in 2021.

Prior to joining UNCSA in 2017, Kozadayev served as assistant professor of ballet at the University of Oklahoma School of Dance. He holds an M.F.A. from Jacksonville University.

Executive Director Endalyn T. Outlaw

Dancer, choreographer and educator Endalyn T. Outlaw (née Taylor) is the dean of the School of Dance at UNCSA. She has held the positions of director of Dance Theatre of Harlem (DTH) School in New York — a company she joined in 1984, becoming a principal dancer in 1993 — and director of the Cambridge Summer Art Institute in Massachusetts. Her extensive administrative, artistic and academic career is steeped in ballet pedagogy, and she has created an eclectic body of choreographic works.

With more than 25 years of teaching experience, she has built an arsenal of pedagogic tools and core values that cultivate artistry, mentoring and versatility, and celebrate inclusionary ideals, policies and systems. Outlaw excels at restaging ballets, having performed many of the classics and having worked with luminaries in the field including DTH founder Arthur Mitchell, British-American ballet dancer and choreographer Frederick Franklin, director and choreographer of LINES Ballet Alonzo King, American dancer and choreographer Agnes de Mille, and director and choreographer of Garth Fagan Dance and “The Lion King,” Garth Fagan. She has performed on Broadway and stages all over the world, including as an original cast member of Tony Award-winning Broadway productions of “The Lion King,” “Aida” and “Carousel.” Prior to joining UNCSA in 2021, she served six years at the University of Illinois, Urbana-Champaign where she taught ballet and musical theater as an associate professor of dance. In 2020 she was appointed the Dean’s Fellow for Black Arts Research.

Chancellor and Conductor Brian Cole

An accomplished conductor, UNCSA Chancellor Brian Cole has led orchestras and operas throughout the United States, Europe, South America and the Caribbean. Cole has conducted extensively in Spain, where he served four years as the founding dean of academic affairs at Berklee College of Music’s campus in Valencia. These ensembles include La Banda Primitiva de Lliria, Centre de Perfeccionament Plácido Domingo, Palau de les Arts, and Orquesta de Córdoba. He has also conducted extensively in Puerto Rico, where he served seven years as associate dean of academic affairs at the Puerto Rico Conservatory of Music, conducting the Puerto Rico Symphony Orchestra and the Lyric Opera Theater of Puerto Rico. In South America, additional conducting engagements have included regular engagements with the Orquesta de Concepción in Chile and the Orquestas Juveniles de Venezuela “Simon Bolivar.” Cole has conducted the Pärnu Linnaorkester in Pärnu, Estonia, where he also conducted the Moscow Chamber Orchestra and the Edinburgh Youth Orchestra.

The 2024 “Nutcracker” marks Cole’s fifth time on the podium with the UNCSA Symphony Orchestra since joining UNCSA as dean of the School of Music in August 2016. In November 2016, Cole conducted Stravinsky’s “Firebird Finale” to conclude the Second Annual Collage Concert at the Stevens Center. In December 2017, he conducted “The Nutcracker” for the first time, and then again in 2018, both at the Stevens Center, and in 2023 at the Steven Tanger Center for the Performing Arts in Greensboro. Cole has served the Cincinnati Symphony Orchestra as conducting assistant and as assistant conductor for the May Festival. He has held the positions of assistant conductor and director of education and outreach programs for the Cincinnati Chamber Orchestra, and as music director of the Concert Orchestra of the University of Cincinnati College-Conservatory of Music, where he was a doctoral student in orchestral conducting. He received his M.M. in instrumental conducting from the University of Illinois and his B.M. in bassoon performance from Louisiana State University.

An innovative, experienced and bilingual arts leader, Brian Cole is the ninth chancellor of UNCSA. Tapped as interim chancellor in August 2019, he was appointed chancellor by the UNC Board of Governors on May 20, 2020.

Guest Lighting Designer Penny Jacobus

Penny Jacobus is the former lighting director for the New York City Ballet (NYCB) and was with the company from 2000 to 2018. Additional credits include four world premiere designs for NYCB and designs for Christopher Wheeldon and the Morphoses Dance Company and for Tom Gold Dance. She has also assisted on several Broadway shows. Jacobus has lit dance internationally and was the American lighting supervisor for several Kirov Ballet tours in the U.S. She started her New York City lighting career as the Hemsley Lighting Intern at the New York City Opera. Jacobus holds a B.A. from the University of Wisconsin-Madison.

About The Tanger Center

Contact Media Relations

Get the best news, performance and alumni stories from UNCSA.
SUBSCRIBE TO OUR NEWSLETTERS(OPENS IN NEW TAB)(OPENS IN NEW TAB)(OPENS IN NEW TAB)(OPENS IN NEW TAB)(OPENS IN NEW TAB)(OPENS IN NEW TAB)(OPENS IN NEW TAB)(OPENS IN NEW TAB)(OPENS IN NEW TAB)(OPENS IN NEW TAB)(OPENS IN NEW TAB)(OPENS IN NEW TAB)(OPENS IN NEW TAB)(OPENS IN NEW TAB)(OPENS IN NEW TAB)