Taking the stage in Ames for the last 27 years, “The Nutcracker” continues the tradition in the upcoming holiday season.

The ballet will be performed at 7:30 p.m. Friday and Saturday and 1:30 p.m. Sunday at Stephens Auditorium.

“The Nutcracker” was originally called “The Nutcracker and the Mouse King,” written by E.T.A. Hoffman. Choreographer Marius Petipa changed the story to focus more on the Nutcracker and adapted it for ballet in 1891. The first performance took place in Russia in 1892. It soon became very popular all over the world and arrived in America in 1940. The version that is performed today wasn’t created until 1954 by choreographer George Balanchine.

The Nutcracker is about a young girl named Clara who gets a toy nutcracker from her godfather for Christmas. Her brother, Fritz, is jealous of the toy and tries to take it from her but ends up breaking it. Clara is devastated and after their Christmas party is over, she falls asleep with the broken doll in her arms. When the clock strikes midnight, she wakes to find the Nutcracker alive and realizes that she has shrunk to his size. All of a sudden, the mouse king appears and the Nutcracker battles him to save Clara. After the mouse is defeated, the two travel through a snowstorm to get to Candyland. Once in Candyland, the Sugar Plum Fairy greets the two and throws a festival in Clara’s honor. The Arabians, Chinese, Hungarians, Spanish, Irish, Russians and Mother Ginger and her children perform their own special dances in the grand celebration. The story ends with Clara’s parents taking her back to her bed. Clara never knows if what happened was a dream or if it was real.

“The Nutcracker” has been performed in Ames for 27 years. Robert Thomas and Miyoko Kato Thomas are the choreographers for the performance. More than 200 dancers from all over Iowa are a part of the ballet along with two principal dancers: Violeta Angelova, the Sugar Plum Fairy, and Momchil Mladenov, who plays the Cavalier. Angelova and Mladenov are internationally known professional dancers. Janice Baker, ballet mistress for Act I, said the principal dancers don’t rehearse with the rest of the cast until the day before the show. They know it well enough to skip the rehearsals for the show and are also busy in New York pursuing their careers.

“It’s wonderful for beginning dancers to see what it’s like to work on stage with professional dancers,” Baker said.

Baker started as a dancer in “The Nutcracker” and performed in the production for about three years. After she had a child, she started directing the first act of the play and has been doing so since 1988. Baker believes the message behind the ballet is that even though the toy soldier is broken, the gift is not what matters; it’s the thought that really counts.

In order to have a great performance, a lot of backstage people are needed.

“You should have a good time in every job you do,” Baker said.

There are costume directors, prop and set directors, lighting crew, makeup crew and backstage managers to keep everyone happy.

“It’s like a big city back there,” Baker said.

In order to make the show run smoothly, all crew members help keep dancers calm, let people know where to go and when and support them during the show.

Tryouts for the ballet are held every year during the second week of September. The only requirement to try out is you must be at least 8 years old.

Rehearsals are held from the audition date until the show every Sunday for six hours. Baker said that a normal rehearsal goes through each part of the show for about an hour and after six practices, they start to put it all together.

Baker enjoys working on the set of “The Nutcracker.” She describes the performance as “living the now and enjoying it.”