Enter a time capsule of Iowa Dance Theatre Nutcracker performances! Over the next week we will be posting scenes from past shows, until the entire Nutcracker is available to view online free of charge – Act I is available now. The links are posted below. We invite you to support IDT by renewing your membership or shopping at our online store, so we can continue to create Nutcracker memories in the years to come. The videos and IDT Store will be available until January 7, 2021.

Most of the recent year’s videos were filmed by Dave Mattern, if you want a DVD of any year’s performance (1990 on), click here to view / download an order form: Video Order Form.

Click on the links to view video and photos (Act II will be available Dec. 17th evening)
8mm silent film clips from 1975
Party Scene
Battle Scene
Snow Scene
Angels
Variations
Flowers
Sugar Plum Fairy / Cavalier
Finale

The videos were selected from the following IDT performances:

  • Sunday, December 1, 1985 at Valley High School in Des Moines, IA
  • Saturday, December 14, 1985 at Martha Ellen Tye Theatre in Marshalltown, IA
  • Saturday, December 17, 1994, 3:00pm at Hoyt Sherman Place in Des Moines, IA
  • Saturday, December 12, 2009, 2:00pm at the Civic Center in Des Moines, IA
  • Saturday December 13, 2014, 7:00pm at the Civic Center in Des Moines, IA
  • Saturday December 12, 2015, 7:00pm at the Civic Center in Des Moines, IA

Also included is silent 8mm video of the Des Moines Civic Ballet performing on Sunday, December 21, 1975 at C.Y. Stephens Auditorium in Ames, IA.

Nutcracker performances have been a tradition of Iowa Dance Theatre for many years. Our first performance was on December 1, 1985 at Valley High School, and our first Civic Center show was December 20, 1997. IDT’s founder, Mary Joyce Lind, was also a founding member of Des Moines Civic Ballet, their first Nutcracker was on December 18, 1966 at North High School.

Your webmaster worked with source video she had on hand for the project. If you have footage of any IDT or DM Civic Ballet Nutcrackers before we had them professionally done by Mattern Video Productions (about 1990), please let her know, we would like to add them to our video library. Please email or click here: webmaster@IowaDanceTheatre.org. We hope you enjoy our Nutcracker Thru the Years!