“It would have been our first year at the Lyric Opera House, you know, you can spend years making lots of good plans, but it doesn’t mean to say they’re going to happen when you want them to. We have tried to keep the spirit of the Nutcracker alive in Chicago, but its probably the first year for nearly all of us that we have not been dancing the Nutcracker.” - Joffrey Ballet artistic director Ashley Wheater talking about a December with no Nutcracker production.