Which Nutcracker is for you?

December is prime time for dance. Visions of sugar plums begin to dance in the heads of people who may never think about attending a performance during the rest of the year.

It’s not only audiences who appreciate the Nutcracker year after year. The dance world — ballet in particular — needs it.

“It almost saved our field,” said Peter Stark, president and director of Philadelphia’s prestigious Rock School for Dance Education, “because everybody was able to do it and use the revenue to pay for everything else to the year.”

Nearly every dance school has its own performance; it’s easy enough to Google a performance nearby. (The Voorhees Schools Theater alone has had three productions of Nutcracker playing since Nov. 26: at Ballet NJ, the South Jersey Ballet School, and the Voorhees Ballet Theatre.)

Here are some more choices to help find the perfect Nutcracker for your holiday season.

Dec. 9-28. Academy of Music.

This one is the Balanchine classic staged in the beautiful Academy of Music. It features a large cast of children, talented professionals, a live orchestra, and red-coated singers from the Philadelphia Boys Choir — and lots of theatrical magic.

“I think Balanchine’s is the closest probably to the original story by E.T.A. Hoffmann,” said Philadelphia Ballet artistic director Angel Corella. “I think [people see] the magic, the mystery, and the beauty of the first act, the warmth of Christmas represented.”

» READ MORE: Philadelphia Ballet charms with the return of ‘Nutcracker’ to the Academy of Music

For him, the Balanchine classic is timeless. And it’s about family.

“Everyone remembers the Nutcracker from when they saw it when they were kids. And then when they saw when they got their children. And then when they have their grandchildren. It keeps going with time and it’s something that you can share.”

Tickets $25-$259. philadelphiaballet.org, 215-893-1999.

Dec. 16-18. Zellerbach Theater, Annenberg Center for the Performing Arts.

The talented students at the Rock School for Dance Education are performing a new Nutcracker this year, choreographed by Peter Stark.

It’s a version closer to the Russian original that Stark choreographed years ago for the Next Generation Ballet in Florida, which he expanded with input from his Philadelphia staff.

“What I usually say in the program is ‘choreography by Peter Stark after Marius Petipa, with additional choreography by the people that did the sections,’ " Stark said.

» READ MORE: Behind the scenes at Philadelphia Ballet’s ‘Nutcracker’

The result is a shorter ballet, with fewer repeats in the music, a light narration, and an older Clara looking back on a Christmas past.

“I grew up in the Balanchine version, I was the prince in the Nutcracker [with the Eglevsky Ballet] and danced in New York City Ballet. But we wanted to do something different,” Stark said.

The Rock Nutcracker will feature a large cast of children as well as the next class of pros. “These dancers are young,” he said, “but they’re incredibly accomplished, and you’re seeing them at the start of their career.”

$25-$140. therockschool.org 215-898-3900.

Dec. 17-18. Mandell Theater.

Chanel Holland wanted a Nutcracker where the kids she teaches, as a part of BalletX’s Dance eXchange outreach program, could see dancers who looked like themselves.

So Holland, the artistic director of the all-Black Chocolate Ballerina Company, created The Nutcracker Dipped in Chocolate.

“We display the traditional Nutcracker story in the first act with the Balanchine choreography,” she said. “And then in the second act, where Clara would normally visit the Spanish, Russian, and Italian dances, she will go to Egypt, Brazil, and West Africa, and Haiti carnival — more rooted in the African American culture.

“You will experience the scenes with live music and stilt walkers and different characters. That’s what makes us dipped in chocolate. We make it really fun, family-oriented, and influential.”

Along with the professional dancers from her company, Holland put out a call for auditions for this ballet. Last year, the cast was 60 dancers. This year it’s 103.

Holland said she has gotten emails from people all over the United States.

“They want to see the impact [of what] we’re doing over here on the East Coast. .”

Tickets $30-$80. chocolateballerinacompany.com

Dec. 10-11. Suzanne Roberts Theater.

The Nutcracker is a story that lends itself to many different interpretations.

Kat Echevarria Richter realized it didn’t even have to be ballet. She decided to do an all-woman tap version.

“It’s an original storyline, which I wrote over the course of one very late night when I was pregnant with my son many years ago,” she said.

A news story had come out about an infestation of rats at the Eiffel Tower, and that’s what inspired the story.

In her version, The Tapcracker, Clara visits Paris with her mother and is excited to see the Eiffel Tower. But it’s closed, so she is dragged to a dinner party instead. A Fairy Tap Mother appears and suggests that she might have more fun if she ditched the grown-ups at the dinner party.

» READ MORE: Behind the scenes at Philadelphia Ballet’s ‘Nutcracker’

In Act 2, they end up at the Palace of Versailles, where the Land of the Sweets is.

The performance includes 43 dancers, including children from Echevarria Richter’s company’s youth ensemble. All styles of tap are represented, from improv and rhythm tap to very stylized choreographed musical theater-style tap.

The music goes from Duke Ellington’s take on the Tchaikovsky classic to an a cappella Dance of the Sugar Plum Fairy by Pentatonix.

But just like the classic Nutcracker, it snows on stage.

Tickets $25-$35. ladyhoofers.org