I've been to a lot of Nutcracker performances and this was by far the worst one. It's not that they did anything wrong per say, it's just that the stage decorations, props, background stuff, and the costumes were very High School-esque. Very cheap and it looks like they had no time or money to make the scenes memorable and amazing. The ballet was adequate, and the overall experience was just average. The stuff mentioned above kind of ruined it. It didn't quite hold true to the story I have seen in most cities very well. But the dancers did a great a job and should always be commended for a great job!
The DeVos center is nice, but it's way too modern and cold. There are weird neon colored lights that are glowing all over the walls before the event, making it feel like you're in some alien spaceship?! Plus the center has nothing unique or special about it. It's just a clean, new, cold building, not the greatest venue for Ballet/Classical Music/etc.