DATA BYTE:
Nutcracker and Holiday Productions 2023–2025

Dance Data Project® (DDP) has released its first report analyzing gender representation in choreography for The Nutcracker and other holiday productions. This mini report or “Data Byte” covers the 2023/2024 and 2024/2025 seasons. The findings reveal an overwhelming dominance of male choreographers, particularly in the Largest 50 ballet companies, despite some growth in opportunities for female choreographers in mid-sized and smaller companies. In both the 2023/2024 and 2024/2025 seasons, all works solely choreographed by deceased choreographers were by men. Among living choreographers, women made up just 27.4% in 2023/2024 and 27.8% in 2024/2025, while men comprised 52.2% and 53.9%, respectively. Additionally, this Data Byte tracks performance frequency – In the 2024/2025 season, where male-choreographed productions averaged 20.2 performances, while female-choreographed productions averaged only 8.3.