It was an honest and fun retelling of the classic story and here is downtown San Diego (which was honestly the worst part due to gross parking structure). Actually, come to mention, do NOT park in the gross parking structure downtown. Eww. Anyways, back to the ballet. The music was fantastic thanks to the San Diego Symphony. You just really have to appreciate how much work goes into these productions. The first half used the charm of young children which was obviously sweet but their lack of synchronization was a little distracting. The second half really demonstrated the skill and artistry of the talented ballerinas. The lead dancers were very high caliber. I am not a ballet expert but this would be the fourth time I've seen the Nutcracker and I've seen it in Phoenix, Joffrey in Chicago, and a Russian Company. The Russian was technically breathtaking, but this one would fall behind that one since it was very entertaining and most importantly, kept my kids attention for two hours.