The Sacramento Ballet is putting the final touches on the company's festively wrapped gift to the community, "The Nutcracker."

The traditional holiday show, which opens Friday and runs through Dec. 23 at the Community Center Theater, begs the question: Who doesn't appreciate a good dream set to music?

"The Nutcracker" brings mice and reindeer to life. A sleigh transports young Clara and her Nutcracker prince from a snowflake forest, through the clouds and into the Kingdom of Sweets.

This wondrous journey – for both the dancers and the audience – wouldn't be the same without Tchaikovsky's enchanting score, which dates to 1892.

It's tradition.

Yet this year, taped music came close to replacing the live strings and flutes of the Sacramento Philharmonic Orchestra, which has performed alongside the ballet since 2003 when new sets for "The Nutcracker" arrived from St. Petersburg, Russia.

Co-artistic directors Ron Cunningham and Carinne Binda learned earlier this season that the ballet's board of directors was concerned about preserving the company's budget, especially when the 2008-09 season was cut short because of financial troubles. Money for live music was something they told Cunningham could hurt the company's fiscal well-being.

"The board was concerned we couldn't sustain a budget that high," Cunningham said. "However, we saw a need to realize what drives this company, and that's artistic quality.

"When you back off that, you end up actually losing income."

Unlike other shows, Cunningham said "The Nutcracker" audience is driven by tradition.

"What will we tell the public if we have no live music?" he said. "It will hurt us and the Philharmonic because it's their income, too."

Dennis Mangers, a retired senior adviser to Senate President Pro Tem Darrell Steinberg, is a member of the State Bar Board of Governors and a former board president of the ballet.

He also was instrumental in bringing Cunningham and Binda to Sacramento in the late 1980s.

When he heard about the musical dilemma, he was with Jane Hill, former executive director of the orchestra and now its interim director.

"Without 'The Nutcracker,' Jane was faced with a 16-performance gap for her musicians," Mangers said. "This would have a huge impact on both the ballet and the Philharmonic."

Mangers got on the phone with local arts donors and other members of the Sacramento Community Regional Foundation, which oversees charitable funds established by families through estates and businesses.

"We put up a $30,000 challenge grant and others parlayed into it," he said. "In all, we raised between ninety and a hundred thousand dollars to help restore the music."

Also donating to the effort were several local businesses and banks.

Mangers, whose daughter danced in "The Nutcracker" and whose daughter's daughter popped out of the oven as a cook in Act II, agrees the score is immortal.

"Most of us can hum the whole thing," he said. "It's so important to the musicians who need work and to the dancers. For the kids, who get so little arts and music education, they get to come to 'The Nutcracker' and have this experience. It's so amazingly different than canned music."

No one has to point out the importance of live music to a conductor.

Henrik Jul Hansen is the music director for the ballet. Once again, he'll conduct the Sacramento Philharmonic for "The Nutcracker," which he says has been successful for both arts groups because of live music.

"I was really worried because I don't think anyone could predict what it would be like without live music," Hansen said. "Securing this funding saved Christmas in Sacramento."

With the allocation he'll have a full slate of musicians – 43 in all – for the full run of the show.

He's already sitting in on rehearsals to observe any changes made to the choreography so that he and the orchestra are in sync with the dancers.

"I enjoy watching the dancers and taking in the intricate moments when they leap and that certain precision with their feet," he said.

Hansen knows "The Nutcracker" score by heart. It's also easily one of the most familiar to professional dancers because they've grown up performing to it.

"Dancers work to the music, to interpret it," said Binda, who oversees much of the rehearsal before opening night. "Each performance is different. That's why working with live music is so exciting."

This season, four women will dance the role of the Sugar Plum Fairy, including the ballet's Amanda Peet and Alexandra Cunningham. With a dashing Cavalier by her side, the "Plum," as dancers often refer to the part, is indeed a plum role, one that younger dancers aspire to.

At age 24, this will be Cunningham's 17th year performing in "The Nutcracker." The music and movements that accompany the Dance of the Sugar Plum Fairy are a part of her dancing DNA, and this is the role she's worked hard to earn.

"I am honored to dance the role of the Sugar Plum Fairy. I always looked up to the company dancers as a student, and I clearly remember how they inspired me to pursue my own dreams of becoming a professional dancer," she said. "Now, I have the opportunity to be a role model for the children in the show and I hope to inspire in them a sense of joy and love for dance.

"Dancing the Sugar Plum Fairy means carrying on one of Sacramento's greatest holiday traditions and bringing the magic of dance into the lives of our community."

For Ron Cunningham, this will be the 24th year since his version of "The Nutcracker" danced to life. He's performed the role of the kindly Dr. Drosselmeyer since 1973. He casts almost 500 children each year in various roles, the largest cast of children in any professional production of "The Nutcracker" in the world. Each show triggers a memory of past "Nutcrackers." A lot of kids have danced their way through the dream.

This time of year, reality also strikes and Cunningham catches what he coughs, chuckles and calls his "Nutcracker cold."

Like the music, it's tradition.

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