The New York City Ballet is a ballet company founded in 1948 by George Balanchine and Lincoln Kirstein. The dance company has become world-famous for its unique athletic and contemporary style, and is considered a cultural treasure of the New York City holiday season. The company's most famous production, George Balanchine's The Nutcracker, helped to establish the New York City Ballet production and its score by Peter Ilyitch Tschaikovsky as perennial United States favorites.
History with the Macy's Parade[]
The New York City Ballet made its first Macy's Thanksgiving Day Parade appearance in the 2002 Parade, pirouetting down the Parade pipe on HIT Entertainment's Angelia Ballerina float. Upon arriving at Herald Square, members of the ensemble performed an excerpt from George Balanchine’s The Nutcracker, complete with a larger-than-life Nutcracker joining the festivities. The NYCB would continue to appear on the float up until its retirement following the 2004 Parade.
For the first time in over ten years, the New York City Ballet would make an appearance in the reimagined 2020 Parade. Appearing and performing on Delta Air Lines' Central Park float, principal dancer Ashley Bouder would perform as the Sugar Plum Fairy from the company's signature production of The Nutcracker, making an appearance despite the 2020 production being cancelled in response to the COVID-19 pandemic.
In an interview with Frank Dilella of On Stage, Bouder expressed her feeling of performing in the Parade for the first time in her career, and how she felt performing the Sugar Plum Fairy for the first time in months. "In a way I feel sad because I don't get another chance. I don't get to keep doing it. I don't get to do the whole thing," Bouder said. "But it's still, you know, it feels good that I can do just any part of it and to be, you know, that kind of role, of the Sugar Plum Fairy, for the people who are watching, just feels wonderful. And it's giving me something to look forward to. It's making me happy. It's completing this part of me that has been missing."