Brecon Festival Ballet is a registered charity, originally established to present a new production of Tchaikovsky’s famous ballet, The Nutcracker at Theatr Brycheiniog for Christmas 2019. Not only was this the first time a full-scale professional version of this iconic ballet had been produced in Wales, but it was also the first time that Theatr Brycheiniog had presented a full length ballet with a live orchestra!

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The Nutcracker is probably the world’s most popular ballet – performed each Christmas to packed houses all over the globe. The ballet is a winning combination of Tchaikovsky’s beautiful music, featuring very familiar tunes, and a magical story involving a Christmas party, a journey through the Christmas Wood and a feast of iconic dances in the Kingdom of Sweets, ruled over by the Sugar Plum Fairy.

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Our production was created by Artistic Director, Katy Sinnadurai, a ballet dancer and choreographer based in Brecon. All principal roles were performed by professional ballet dancers, with children’s and character roles taken by local dance students and actors. The corps de ballet roles were performed by full time students from King's International Ballet Academy, The Snowflakes Chorus was sung by a local choir and the production was accompanied by the Welsh Chamber Orchestra.

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This ambitious project was made possible by grants and a fundraising campaign which helped cover the costs of this exciting production.  All performances played to sell out audiences and, such was its success, that Brecon Festival Ballet is now booked at Theatr Brycheiniog for future years to present Brecon’s annual Christmas ballet. In 2020, Katy Sinnadurai was awarded a British Empire Medal in the Queen’s New Year’s Honours List for services to Dance Education, Training and Performance.​