Morton Street Dance Center dancers to perform Nutcracker at Mayor's Tree Lighting Ceremony

BALTIMORE -- Young dancers from the Morton Street Dance Center are prepared to bring a classic Christmas story to life at the Mayor's Tree Lighting Ceremony on Wednesday in front of Baltimore's City Hall.

For more than 30 years, the Morton Street Dance Center has trained hundreds of dancers ages 3 and older in the Greater Baltimore area. 

Those dancers will perform the Nutcracker at the tree lighting ceremony.

"I feel really excited and nervous about showing the mayor the Nutcracker," said 9-year-old dancer Mila.

"It feels like we really accomplished something that's good enough to spread all throughout the city," said 10-year-old dancer Everly.

WJZ is the proud media sponsor of the tree lighting ceremony which will be from 6 p.m. to 8 p.m.

The Morton Street Dance Center dancers have been preparing for this performance for several months.

"It's a great honor for our children to do that," said Morton Street Dance Center Director Donna Jacobs. "They are very, very excited and they represent and reflect this community."

Jacobs is confident all of their hard work and dedication will shine through when it's time to take the stage. 

"They'll enter that stage with confidence," Jacobs said. 

The dancers at Morton Street Dance Center learn and practice ballet, jazz, modern dance, tap, hip-hop and African dance.

"And then we continue to layer it with more complicated choreography and then we get to a performance quality, and now in rehearsal, they're at performance quality," Jacobs said. 

You can also watch the dancers perform the Nutcracker at the Morton Street Dance Center, at 3600 Clipper Mill Road, on Saturday, Dec. 7 and Sunday, Dec. 8. Find more information here.