A beloved holiday tradition will soon return to the Piedmont Triad when UNCSA debuts
the 2023 production of “The Nutcracker” at the Steven Tanger Center for the Performing Arts. Beginning Thursday, Dec. 7, through Sunday, Dec. 10, UNCSA will present five performances
of “The Nutcracker” there while its home theater, the Stevens Center in Winston-Salem,
undergoes a comprehensive renovation.

Performances are Thursday-Friday, Dec. 7-8, at 7:30 p.m.; Saturday, Dec. 9, at noon and 7:30 p.m.; and Sunday,
Dec. 10, at 2 p.m. Ticket prices begin at $31 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.

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. Ballet and contemporary
dance students will perform.

“It’s a wonderfully rich and magical production that our UNCSA students will bring to our neighboring Tanger
Center,” said Endalyn T. Outlaw, dean of the School of Dance and executive director of “The Nutcracker.” “To be able to showcase their professional-level
training in a large-scale venue is truly a gift that we cannot wait to share with the guests.”

An accomplished conductor, Chancellor Brian Cole will conduct the UNCSA Symphony Orchestra for all five performances. 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.

Guest artist Penny Jacobus returns as guest lighting designer.

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

The temporary move to the Tanger Center will provide students the unique experience
of touring, mounting and performing a production in a 3,000-seat, state-of-the-art
venue a short distance from UNCSA. “We are so excited to bring the special UNCSA tradition
of ‘The Nutcracker’ to the Tanger Center this year,” said UNCSA Chancellor Cole. “While
this temporary move was born out of necessity, it is our great privilege to be able
to provide our students with the experience of creating and performing in this fantastic
venue, and to reach new audiences in Greensboro and beyond.”

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.

Mercedes-Benz of Greensboro and Mercedes-Benz of Winston-Salem is the presenting sponsor
of “The Nutcracker.”

Photos for download available here.

Choreographer and Director Ilya Kozadayev

Ilya Kozadayev received his dance training from Vaganova Ballet Academy; School of
American Ballet; Academy of Colorado Ballet; and John Cranko Ballet Academy in Stuttgart,
Germany. He danced professionally, performing an array of international repertoire,
as a soloist with Colorado Ballet, Pittsburgh Ballet Theater, the Houston Ballet and
as a dancer with Boston Ballet. Kozadayev was a winner of the New York International
Ballet Competition and in 2015 won the Ballet Arkansas 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. 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.”

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, Pala 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 2023 “Nutcracker” marks Cole’s fourth 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 “The
Nutcracker” for the first time, also at the Stevens Center, and then again in 2018.
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

A $94 million, state-of-the-art facility that has transformed downtown Greensboro,
North Carolina, the Steven Tanger Center for the Performing Arts venue is home to
touring Broadway productions, concerts, Guilford College’s Bryan Series, Greensboro
Symphony Orchestra performances, comedy shows and all types of family entertainment.
In its remarkable first two years, the Tanger Center has hosted over 745,000 patrons,
391 events and performances, and 146 sold-out shows. Presented with partners Nederlander and Professional Facilities Management (PFM), the First Bank Broadway Series
is one of the nation’s top-selling one-week Broadway series with over 16,800 Season
Seat Members. The 3,000-seat venue is managed by the staff of the Greensboro Coliseum
Complex. Visit TangerCenter.com for more information.

About UNCSA

The University of North Carolina School of the Arts (UNCSA) is a top-ranked arts conservatory
and America’s first state-supported arts school. The nation’s only public university
of five arts disciplines on one campus, UNCSA prepares emerging artists for careers
in dance, design and production, drama, filmmaking, and music at the undergraduate
through post-graduate levels, as well as through a specialized high school with free
tuition for in-state residents. UNCSA provides industry-leading instruction in an
inclusive environment where students are encouraged to leverage the arts as a mechanism
for change. Interdisciplinary opportunities arising from the unique arts ecosystem
on campus at UNCSA prepare artists to enter an evolving global arts and entertainment
industry. Established by the N.C. General Assembly in 1963, the School of the Arts
opened in Winston-Salem (“The City of Arts and Innovation”) in 1965 and became part
of the University of North Carolina System when it was formed in 1972. For more information,
visit uncsa.edu.

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