Weatherman Nick Kosir will dance up a storm in 'Nutcracker'

“The Nutcracker” is all about Sugar Plum Fairies and waltzing snowflakes and little girls in candy-colored dresses. So how does a dancing weatherman fit into the picture?

Maurice Brandon Curry, executive artistic director of the Eglevsky Ballet, can answer that question. All too aware of the impact of social media, Curry says he makes it a habit to look on platforms like TikTok and Instagram for “things that make me happy.” Which is where he discovered Nick Kosir, known to his millions of followers as “the dancing weatherman.”

“I had a big smile watching videos of him dancing with kids … incorporating dance into his weather forecast,” says Curry. “Every time I saw one of his posts, I felt good.” So he reached out to Kosir and offered the Fox Weather meteorologist the role of Dr. Stahlbaum in the holiday classic at Tilles Center for the Performing Arts in Brookville Dec. 17 and 18 — “the opportunity to come and be a real dancer.” It’s just another way to set the production apart, says Curry, especially when so many take place this time of the year.

GOTTA DANCE

Kosir, who moved to New York in 2021 to become the evening co-host on the site, was skeptical when he read Curry’s email. “I’d never done anything like it,” says Kosir, whose moves are clearly more hip-hop than ballet.

It all started in 2019 when his employer at the time, a Fox station in Charlotte, North Carolina, asked employees to increase their social media posts. Running out of things to post, Kosir noticed some kids dancing on TikTok and figured he should try his own dancing — in the studio, on the street. He even appeared on the Fox show “So You Think You Can Dance.” Kosir now has 2 million Instagram followers and 5.6 million on TikTok.

As to “The Nutcracker,” he says he couldn’t stop thinking about it, and “if I was still thinking about it, then obviously I wanted to do it.” As the father of Clara, the little girl whose dream sets off all the action, he dances in the opening party scene, and has quickly learned that ballet is very different from what he’s accustomed to. “It’s almost the complete opposite,” he says. “You have to be light on your feet when you dance hip-hop, but in a different way.”

He’s working on the simple things — the posture a dancer has to carry, the arm movements. “I had a huge amount of respect for ballet dancers going into this, and somehow my amount of respect has doubled or even tripled after seeing all the hard work … it’s truly mind blowing,” he says.

THE BIG 4-OH

No one understands that better than Nicole Loizides Albruzzese, who became the artistic director of the New York Dance Theatre this year, just in time to direct the company’s 40th anniversary production of “The Nutcracker" Dec. 17-18 at Hofstra University’s John Cranford Adams Playhouse. 

Albruzzese started in the company’s “Nutcracker” at age 5, a tiny angel who “didn’t know my right from my left.” She worked her way up through the ranks, dancing Clara and the Sugar Plum Fairy before embarking on a professional career performing with Momix, Ballet Hispanico and choreographing for the 2014 Winter Olympics in Sochi, Russia.

Returning to Long Island, Albruzzese started her own company, Moving On, but says her heart never left ballet. She joined New York Dance Theatre’s board last year, and became artistic director this season, following in the footsteps of her mentor, company founder Frank Ohman. To distinguish this production, she explains that Ohman expanded some parts, creating “roles for those who might not otherwise have had a role.” He added baby mice for the 3- to 5-year-olds, a couple of new scenes to bring more diversity to the second act, even a dancing bear. “I will say,” she says with a smile,” we do have one of the longest ‘Nutcrackers.’ ”

No matter, she says, people love this story. “It speaks to every age. I keep using the word wonderment,” she adds. Our goal is to bring “the wonder and the joy of dance into every household.”

“It elicits a great feeling of family for the holidays,” says the Eglevsky’s Curry. “I would like audiences to take away … the joy of the holidays, and also the magic of this production. There’s something incredibly wonderful about a little girl having a dream, and the dream comes to life.”