Each winter, Atlanta dance enthusiasts look forward to that evergreen tradition: taking in a performance of The Nutcracker. Metro Atlanta boasts three long-running productions of the classic ballet staged by established professional companies. But for those who crave something different in dance this holiday season, Atlanta has a lot to offer, including premieres by local choreographers, university concerts, national and international touring productions, and, for those who love moving as well as spectating, organized social dancing. This is a comprehensive guide to non-Nutcracker alternatives. 

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Premieres and perennials from local artists

Komansé Dance Theater – 10 PIECE

Friday, November 13, at 7 p.m.; Saturday, November 14, at 2 p.m. and 7 p.m.; Sunday, November 15, at 4 p.m. The Paideia Black Box Theater & Art Lobby, 1509 S. Ponce de Leon Ave. NE, Atlanta.

Komansé founder and Artistic Director Raianna Brown is known for choreography that combines Ailey-Horton modern dance vocabulary with street and commercial dance styles. In this evening-length premiere, Brown and Komansé investigate what they describe as “the contradictions of Atlanta trap culture and the Black communities responsible for shaping its global influence.” 10 PIECE grew out of Komansé Artist-in-Residence Rochelle Phillips’ research into trap music. Featuring choreography by Brown, Phillips and Ta Nycia Wooden, the work explores “the sonic, social and cultural landscape of Atlanta trap music, where movement becomes a language of resistance, cultural memory and reclamation.” The production contains mature language; the company recommends the Saturday matinée for younger audiences. Tickets are $25 (early bird pricing) to $75 (VIP).

Patsy Collins – we were never awake

Friday, November 20, and Sunday, November 22, at 7:30 p.m. Vesper Theatre, 2823 Church St., East Point.

Atlanta choreographer Patsy Collins has described her choreography as an investigation of how surfaces conceal complex emotional states roiling just underneath and how the delicate equilibrium can shatter and reconfigure in the space of a heartbeat. In a new work, we were never awake, she uses her powerful physical vocabulary — movement packed with athleticism and expressive resonance — to explore the territory between dreams and nightmares, both those we have while asleep and those we live while awake. The venue, Vesper Theatre, which took over the former Windmill Arts space this year, is a five-minute walk from the East Point MARTA station. Tickets range between $10 and $17, with student discounts available by email.

Emma Morris Projects – hope we never Land

Saturday, November 21, at 7:30 p.m. LOOP, 665 Marietta St. NW, Atlanta.

Choreographer Emma Morris premiered I hope we never Land during the 2026 Atlanta Fringe Festival. For this restaging, she has transformed the evening-length work exploring memory, loss, nostalgia and humanity’s place in the natural world into an immersive experience in-the-round. This time she has teamed up with Atlanta-based media artist Jordan Young to create projections that surround the audience and dancers on all sides. LOOP, an experimental arts space at Goat Farm Arts Center, operates in partnership with Georgia Tech Arts, opened in June in a former 1940s factory at the edge of Georgia Tech’s planned Creative Quarter. Tickets range between $24 (early bird artist/student discount) and $40. In the holiday spirit, patrons can buy and donate extra tickets to volunteers, students and artists.

Full Radius Dance – Up Close & Personal

Saturday, December 5, at 7 p.m. Dance Foundry, 2977 E. Ponce de Leon Ave., Decatur.

Physically-integrated dance company Full Radius Dance, founded in 1990 by Artistic Director Douglas Scott, will present an intimate, in-studio evening of repertory created by company members. In addition to making dance that includes dancers with and without disabilities, Scott and Full Radius are committed to ensuring their art remains financially accessible to diverse communities. Tickets are donation-based, starting at zero, with a suggested donation of $15. Seating is limited, and last year’s performance sold out.

Terminus Modern Ballet Theatre – Marley Was Dead, To Begin With: A Christmas Carol, Told Again

Saturday, December 12, at 2 p.m. and 8 p.m.; Sunday, December 13, at 2 p.m. and 7 p.m. Goizueta Stage for Youth and Families, Woodruff Arts Center, 1280 Peachtree St. NE, Atlanta.

Quickly becoming an Atlanta tradition in its own right, this reinterpretation of Dickens’ A Christmas Carol premiered on film in 2020 during the Covid-19 pandemic and made its stage debut in 2021. Choreographed by Heath Gill, with contributions from the company’s dancers and set to an original score by Jacob Ryan Smith (who just world-premiered Like Father at Alliance Theatre), Marley Was Dead positions Jacob Marley as a complex central character and sidekick to Ebenezer Scrooge as they embark — physically and morally chained together — on a journey of memory, reflection and redemption. Terminus co-founder Christian Clark, the only one of TMBT’s five founders still performing with the company, will reprise his role as Bob Cratchit. Tickets range between  $27 and $67.

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Performances by the next generation

Atlanta-area university dance programs incubate the next generation of talent by providing opportunities for students to perform and even create new work. They also provide a space for local and visiting professional choreographers to practice their craft.

University of Georgia Department of Dance – Student Choreography Concert

Wednesday, November 11, through Friday, November 13, at 7:30 p.m. UGA Dance Theatre, 263 W. Green St., Athens.

UGA’s fall concert doubles as a showcase for graduating senior dancers and emerging student choreographers. Dance majors choreograph and produce the works with the help of faculty and staff mentors. This year’s program will span a range of dance styles and music. Tickets range from $7 to $15.

Kennesaw State University Dance – Viewpoints

Thursday, November 12, through Saturday, November 14, at 7:30 p.m. KSU Dance Theater, 860 Rossbacher Way, Marietta.

At KSU, students will be performing in work by faculty and guest choreographers. The concert theme this year asks artists to explore how dance offers new perspectives from which to perceive time, space, memory and one another. In addition to dances by faculty Shannon Alvis, Leandro Damasco, Gary Jeter and Andrea Knowlton, the mixed-rep program includes a premiere by Darvensky Louis. Tickets range from $17.50 to $22.50.

Robin Wharton is part-time faculty in the KSU Department of Dance but is not involved in the department’s concert series.

Emory Dance Company – Fall Concert

Wednesday, November 18, through Saturday, November 21, at 7:30 p.m. Schwartz Center for Performing Arts, Dance Studio, 1700 N. Decatur Road, Atlanta.

Faculty members Julio Medina and George Staib, who is also the founder and artistic director of staibdance, will be showing work alongside three guest artists. Cecily Davis was a founding dancer of Gwinnett Ballet Theatre and, in addition to numerous works for GBT and Sugarloaf Youth Ballet, she created a premiere for Dance Canvas’ 2026 performance series in partnership with GBT. LaMia Dingle, who has been based in Atlanta since 2014, is co-founder with Anthony Rhodes of Philadelphia-based Reveal Movement. Alpert Award-winning choreographer Jeanine Durning is based in New York, has performed her work across the United States and the globe and has received numerous residencies and fellowships in support of her practice of “nonstopping,” which pairs continuous speech and movement. Tickets range from  $10 (for students) to $18.

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Touring Productions

American Ballet Theatre Studio Company

Saturday, November 14, at 8 p.m. Rialto Center for the Arts, 80 Forsyth St. NW, Atlanta.

American Ballet Theatre Studio Company, an ensemble of about a dozen dancers in their late teens and early 20s who are preparing for careers at ABT and other major companies, is the junior company of New York’s American Ballet Theatre. In a rare Atlanta appearance, they will perform a mixed-rep program of classical, neoclassical and contemporary work, including the wedding pas de deux from Don Quixote. The evening of dance will conclude with a panel discussion — moderated by Atlanta Dance Canvas Director Angela Harris — featuring ABT Studio Company Artistic Director Sascha Radetsky; City Dance and Music Ballet Director Harry Mark Burns Jr., a national visiting fellow at the School of American Ballet in New York; Caroline Simpkins, host of the Ballet Science podcast; Anna Dunn, ballet mistress at DeKalb School of the Arts; and Mara Mandradjieff, assistant teaching professor in the Emory University dance and movement studies program. Tickets range from $45 to $85.

Grand Kyiv Ballet – Swan Lake: Symphony of Lights

Sunday, November 22, at 4 p.m. Atlanta Symphony Hall, 1280 Peachtree St. NE, Atlanta.

This touring production presents the classic Tchaikovsky ballet in illuminated costumes with imaginative stage and lighting design. Founded in 2014 by Oleksandr Stoianov, a principal dancer with the National Opera of Ukraine, the company brought its Nutcracker to Symphony Hall last season. Tickets range from  $54.50 to $144.55.

Alex Tatarsky – Sad Boys in Harpy Land

Saturday, November 28, and Sunday, November 29, at 7:30 p.m. Vesper Theatre, 2823 Church St., East Point.

This 80-minute solo by New York-based performer Alex Tatarsky, a self-proclaimed “experimental clown artist,” promises to “usher audiences through an absurdist hellscape of the mind” with a blend of clowning, dance and theater in a “performance that challenges the idea of individual malady and instead embraces the turbulent maze of shared struggle.” Tatarsky braids autobiography with the stories of other tormented protagonists drawn from Goethe’s Wilhelm Meister, Dante, Amiri Baraka, Helen Adams and Seinfeld. Shane Riley will perform live music, and Iris McCloughan directs. Audience members under 16 must attend with a parent or guardian. Tickets range from $28.52 to $40.

Cirque du Soleil – ‘Twas the Night Before…

Wednesday, December 2, through Friday, December 4 at 7:30 p.m.; Saturday, December 12, at noon; Sunday, December 13, at 4 p.m. Fox Theatre Atlanta, 660 Peachtree St. NE.

Cirque du Soleil is presenting a holiday show inspired by Clement Clarke Moore’s classic poem “A Visit from St. Nicholas.” The story follows a jaded young girl who rediscovers the season’s magic. The show will feature Cirque’s signature mix of acrobatics, circus arts, dance and music. Tickets range from $49 to $139.

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Social Dance

Long  before The Nutcracker became tradition, many cultures celebrated the holidays with social dances. These events welcome beginners, and each starts with a lesson.

Atlanta Contra Dance, Atlanta Dance Weekend – The Age of Aquarius

Friday, November 13, through Sunday, November 15. Decatur Recreation Center, 231 Sycamore St., Decatur.

Contra is a New England social dance descended from English country dance. Atlanta Contra Dance’s annual festival will feature three live bands — River Road, Cosmic Weather and Shapeshifter — and callers Cis Hinkle and Luke Donforth. Weekend passes are $120 (early-bird pricing) or $155. Single-evening tickets are $35 to $45. Atlanta-area first-time attendees get in at half price ($20 to $25 for single-evening tickets), and attendees with limited incomes are invited to pay what they can afford. ACD’s regular dances continue most Fridays at Decatur Rec, with an introductory lesson at 7:30 p.m. Regular admission is $15, or $7 for people with limited income.

TUMBAO Dance Social

Saturdays, November 14 and December 12, from 9:30 p.m. to 2 a.m. Academy Ballroom, 800 Miami Circle NE, Atlanta.

TUMBAO’s free monthly salsa and bachata social meets on the second Saturday of every month. In November and December, the evening will begin with complimentary classes taught by Eli Perez from 9:30 p.m. to 10:30 p.m. Open dancing follows in two separate rooms, one reserved for salsa, the other for bachata.

PasoFino Dance Social

Saturdays, November 28 and December 26, from 9:30 p.m. to 2 a.m. Academy Ballroom, 800 Miami Circle NE, Atlanta.

Hosted by Jose Maldonado on the fourth Saturday of each month, PasoFino is one of Atlanta’s longest-running Latin socials. Each night opens with a free salsa class by Jose Maldonado from 9:30 p.m. to 10:30 p.m., followed by salsa and bachata spun by DJ King Tito and guest DJs. Admission is $15 to $20.

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Robin Wharton studied dance at the School of American Ballet and the Pacific Northwest Ballet School. As an undergraduate at Tulane University in New Orleans, she was a member of the Newcomb Dance Company. In addition to a bachelor of arts in English from Tulane, Robin holds a law degree and a Ph.D. in English, both from the University of Georgia.