An immersive and interactive re-imagination of The Nutcracker

set to Duke Ellington & Billy Strayhorn’s iconic arrangement of the Tchaikovsky score

2025 will be the eighth year of this beloved Austin production.

co-Presented by Red Nightfall Dance Theatre & Ventana Ballet

An Austin tradition since 2018

Concept, Choreography, Artistic Director, Director of Red Nightfall Dance Theatre - Dorothy O’Shea Overbey

Executive Director, Director of Ventana Ballet - AJ Garcia-Rameau

The Watchmaker’s Song is an immersive, culturally inclusive dance-theatre production based on the beloved ballet, The Nutcracker, performed at the historic Neill Cochran House Museum.

The Watchmaker’s Song showcases many different dance and theatrical traditions, from classical ballet to Spanish Flamenco, Egyptian Belly Dance, Traditional Chinese Dance, Bollywood, Irish Step Dance, American Tap Dance, Argentine Tango, Drag Performance, and more. Act One of The Watchmaker’s Song features Duke Ellington and Billy Strayhorn’s iconic arrangement of the Tchaikovsky score.

Our mission is to bring the Austin dance community together to honor our diverse traditions and celebrate our love of dance!

By presenting this performance in an immersive style at the Neill-Cochran House Museum we break down the barriers between performers and audience members, so dance of all kinds can be experienced in an intimate setting.

2025 will be our EIGTH ANNUAL PRODUCTION

This nutcracker is different…

“…because of the chance it offered to dive inside this familiar work, to attend the party that kicks off the evening's adventure and take our own journeys to see cultures of faraway lands.

The Watchmaker's Song let us in on the action.

To be so close to something you know so well from afar is to see it anew. It is magical, and in a way that is all this show's own.”

-Robert Faires, the Austin Chronicle