Tacoma City Ballet’s “Nutcracker” is moving to Federal Way.

After 33 years of residency at the Pantages Theater in Tacoma, Tacoma City Ballet announced its decision to move the company’s largest performance of the year to the Performing Arts and Event Center – assuming it’s built by its projected summer 2017 deadline.

“I can’t tell you how happy we are and how wonderful Federal Way has been,” Tacoma City Ballet artistic director Erin Ceragioli said. “They opened their arms and said, ‘Yes! Yay, let’s have the Nutcracker here.’ ”

The Tacoma City Ballet’s first appearance in Federal Way will be in August during the Performing Arts and Event Center’s grand opening, with the “Nutcracker” in December to follow.

Because the Tacoma theater will be closed for one year in May 2018 for an extensive rennovation that will last 18 to 24 months, the ballet company plans to bring its spring performance of “Cinderella” and fall performance of “Dracula” to Federal Way in 2018 as well.

Ceragioli said the ballet will retain its residency at the Pantages Theater but was essentially forced to look at other venues for its full-length performances because of a new policy from the Broadway Center for the Performing Arts in Tacoma.

The policy limits the amount of days organizations can rent the theater to 10. The average full-length produciton is usually 14 to 15 days.

“If we cannot perform for two weekends, we cannot recover the money that it takes to put the production up,” Ceragioli said, noting that the ballet grosses approximately $250,000 for a full production of the “Nutcracker.”

She estimates dropping down to 10 days would deliver an $80,000 hit to the ballet, and because it costs over $100,000 to produce the play, which includes paying the orchestra, rent, labor and media that goes into marketing the production, the impact is significant.

Although there are high school theaters in the south Puget Sound area, none of them have orchestra pits or the professional accomodations the ballet company needs. With the Pantages Theater, the ballet company worked to get 28 musicians in the orchestra pit. The Performing Arts and Event Center will hold 52.

Ceragioli said the center will also boast a much larger stage and will “actually have a loading dock” to make it easier for transportation of props, costumes and other necessities.

During this season’s “Nutcracker,” the ballet performed for about 4,000 people, and Ceragioli is confident many of her patrons will follow the ballet to Federal Way.

However, she is hopeful the new location will generate audience members from different areas of the region, specifically in Kent and Auburn as well.

The ballet will keep its school in Tacoma, but because there will be such a heavy presence in Federal Way, Ceragioli said she’s “not opposed” to a name change. Federal Way City Ballet, perhaps?

“We’re going to naturally, I believe, end up in Federal Way because they give us time,” she said, adding that the Performing Arts and Event Center’s executive director Theresa Yvonne is an “absolute gem.”

To learn more about the Tacoma City Ballet, visit www.tacomacityballet.com.