SLIDE SHOW: 'Nutcracker'

SLIDE SHOW Click photo to see more pictures 

Eleven fourth- and fifth-graders from P.S. 276 perform the "Nutcracker" finale, choreographed by their teacher, Frida Persson. Photo: Carl Glassman/Tribeca Trib

Before the start of the first of two "Nutcracker" performances last month, Manhattan Youth staff member George Ross ties Mina Yavachez’s ballet slipper. Photo: Carl Glassman/Tribeca Trib

Photo: Carl Glassman/Tribeca Trib

Two "Chinese Tea Cups" get ready for their performance. Photo: Carl Glassman/Tribeca Trib

Susan Kay, the director and "hub" of the annual helps get kids up the stairs. Photo: Carl Glassman/Tribeca Trib

Carlos DeJesus IV, one of 27 staff members who assisted in the "Nutcracker" production, quiets dancers as they climb stairs on their way to the P.S. 89 stage. Photo: Carl Glassman/Tribeca Trib

Manhattan Youth's after-school dancers perform a hip hop version of “The Battle." Photo: Carl Glassman/Tribeca Trib

Claire Duguet and Hanaco Fujita perform “Dance of the Flowers.” Photo: Carl Glassman/Tribeca Trib

During the dress rehearsal, Ariana Valentine and Amy Diallo work on their dance as snowflakes with teacher Junie Kenworthy. Photo: Carl Glassman/Tribeca Trib

Even a makeup session can be hilarious. Photo: Carl Glassman/Tribeca Trib

Kara Zacconi's P.S. 89's kindergarten and 1st grade hip hop class performs "Spanish Chocolote." Photo: Carl Glassman/Tribeca Trib

Photo: Carl Glassman/Tribeca Trib

There they were again, on the P.S. 89 stage last month, the dancing flowers and Chinese Tea Cups, the Reed Pipes and Sugar Plum Fairies. Manhattan Youth’s after- school dance classes—all 18 of them—came together once more for “The Nut­cracker,” with new costumes, chor­eography, music and sets, but with the same high energy and hard work that makes the production a success each holiday season.

Manhattan Youth’s Susan Kay, who adapted and directed the show and manages to bring all the disparate pieces together, said preparing for this performance was a special challenge because she was busy getting the Downtown Community Center’s new post-Sandy studios ready for the start of school. But even under the best of circumstances, the show’s success seems a small miracle.

“I’ll peek in the classes and teachers will say, ‘I don’t know how the kids are going to do this,’ Kay says. “But they always pull it off. And I’m always amazed.”