Nutcracker Fittings

Principal dancer Dusty Button and Kenneth Busbin, the head draper and workroom supervisor. The Sugar Plum Fairy wears two different looks in the production.

Corps de Ballet dancer Sarah Wroth wears the Sugar Plum II costume.

Company dancer Addie Tapp has a fitting with Erica Desautels, costume crafts person. All of the Nutcracker costumes were designed with lightness in mind to illuminate the dancers’ movements.

Heather McLernon, wardrobe supervisor, fits the bear costume with company dancer Marcus Romeo. It took two weeks to make the costume.

Soloist Rachele Buriassi gets fitted in the Snow Queen costume, which is hand-tipped with metallic paint.

Company dancer Sarah Wroth with wardrobe supervisor Heather McLernon, and Ezra Lovesky, a stitcher and wardrobe assistant. McLernon and Lovesky are wearing tiaras for #TiaraTuesday.

Corps de Ballet dancer Sarah Wroth (left) and soloist Isaac Akiba tries on the Chinese costume.

Stitcher and wardrobe assistant Ezra Lovesky (left), wardrobe supervisor Heather McLernon (far right), and company dancer Drew Nelson, wearing the Mice King costume. The Big Mice costumes have 15,000 yards of tulle trim fabricated for them.

Lisa Dezmelyk, a pattern maker and fitter, sews the Pastoral jacket.

Company dancer Drew Nelson fitting for the role of Mother Ginger. A 70-pound skirt will be clipped to the upper part of this costume, and Nelson will stand on four-foot stilts during the performance.

Shane Maxwell touches up a unitard. All of the sets were painted by hand and made in the U.S.

Kenneth Busbin, head draper and workroom supervisor, measures pants for the role of the Arabian dancer.

Principal dancer Dusty Button (left) gets fitted for the Sugar Plum I costume with Kenneth Busbin, head draper and workroom supervisor, and Kim Vercoe (far right), firsthand assistant to the draper.

Eight children play Little Mice in The Nutcracker. Each snout will be touched up with paint before opening night.

Company dancer Lasha Khozashvili, wearing the Nutcracker prince, pretends to hold a sword for the battle scene.

Soloist Isaac Akiba in the Nutcracker cavalier costume.

Swarovski crystals are heat-activated and manually set on the Sugar Plum tutu. Over 2,000 yards of netting and 200,000 jewels were used in the costumes.

Lisa Dezmelyk, pattern maker and fitter, steams a costume.

Principal dancer Dusty Button wears the Sugar Plum II costume, which is adorned with more than 3,600 jewels.

Corps de Ballet dancer Andres Garcia tries on the Spanish Dance costume.

Multiple dancers play the role of the Sugar Plum. Labels let them know which costume belongs to them.

Company dancer Samuel Ainley fits for the Chestnut Vendor, one of the prologue characters.