One of Alexei Ratmansky’s big successes at American Ballet Theatre was his 2010 production of The Nutcracker, gorgeously designed and costumed by Richard Hudson. Ratmansky has a lot of fun with a brazen little mouse who races through the holiday party stealing sausages and scenes (since then, whenever I see a real mouse I think of this one). And as the Kirkland–Baryshnikov production did before him, Ratmansky lets an adult dancer into the role of Clara, who in two big pas de deux is a vision of the young woman Clara will become (the role was a love letter to the ABT ballerina Veronika Part, who trained at the Mariinsky). This Nutcracker brims with beauty. —Laura Jacobs