What's on · Fri 30 Oct 2026
Three Nutcrackers, two weekends: choosing your December ballet in Manila
The same ballet plays three Metro Manila theatres in the space of nine days this December. Ballet Manila with Steps Dance Studio in Makati and Ballet Philippines in Parañaque run on the same weekend, 11 to 13 December, then a touring Saint Petersburg company plays Pasay on 18 and 19 December. The ballet is the same. The company, the room and the kind of night are not.
Every December the world's Christmas ballet arrives in Manila, but this year it arrives three times at once. Two of the country's own companies stage The Nutcracker on the same three days in different cities of the metro, and a week later a Russian touring company brings its own production to a third theatre. All three records are on this calendar with confirmed dates: Ballet Manila in Makati, Ballet Philippines in Parañaque and the Saint Petersburg National Ballet Theatre in Pasay. This page is about choosing between them.
Weekend one, in Makati: a first for the venue
At the Samsung Performing Arts Theater in Circuit Makati, Ballet Manila's artists dance with dancers from Steps Dance Studio, in a production restaged by Jeffrey Espejo and presented by Ayala Land, Circuit Makati and the theatre itself, with GCash support. It is the first Nutcracker staged at this venue, which is part of the occasion: a young theatre taking on the season's defining ballet. The run is Friday 11 to Sunday 13 December, with an evening performance at 7:30pm on the Friday, 2pm and 7:30pm on the Saturday and a 2pm matinee on the Sunday, and tickets are sold exclusively through TicketWorld.
Weekend one, in Parañaque: the resident company's tradition
The same three days, across the metro at The Theatre at Solaire, Ballet Philippines stages its own Nutcracker as the second production of its 57th season. The company's own season page puts the emphasis on tradition: this is the resident company doing the ballet it returns to every Christmas, in its home theatre in Entertainment City. If the Makati production is the event, the Solaire production is the institution, and for ballet regulars that continuity is the point. Show by show dates and the season listing are on the company's site, linked from our event page.
Weekend two, in Pasay: the touring company
On Friday 18 and Saturday 19 December the choice changes again: the Saint Petersburg National Ballet Theatre brings The Nutcracker to the Newport Performing Arts Theater in Pasay, the production's first time in Manila, starring Oksana Bondareva and Ivan Sitnikov. It is the Manila leg of Aurum Entertainment's ASEAN tour, which plays Kuala Lumpur and Singapore the week before, and tickets are sold through Megatix with published prices from ₱1,700 to ₱20,000. A touring company is a different proposition from a home season: one cast, honed on the road, here for two days and then gone.
And if ballet is not the family vote
The same theatre that hosts Ballet Philippines answers with a film the following weekend: Home Alone in Concert screens the Christmas film with a live orchestral score at The Theatre at Solaire on Saturday 19 and Sunday 20 December, both shows at 3pm, presented by Film Concerts PH. It clashes directly with the Saint Petersburg Saturday, which is the real December problem in miniature: not finding something to see, but choosing.
How to choose
First timers and families: take a 2pm matinee, in Makati on the first weekend or at Solaire, and keep the evening free. Ballet regulars: the resident company's Solaire run is the season's anchor, and the Saint Petersburg nights are the ones that will not come back. Visitors based on the bay side should let geography help: Solaire and Newport are minutes apart in the Pasay and Parañaque entertainment districts, while the Makati theatre pairs with a Makati stay. The Makati, Parañaque and Pasay guides and the hotels page cover the bases for each. Our Christmas season guide shows where the ballet weekends sit in the longer Philippine season.
More reading on the articles page, or go straight to the events calendar.