The Nutcracker has become such a popular holiday entertainment that it is sometimes easy to forget what a huge investment in time and effort it represents for all those involved.

Locally, it occupies the better part of the months of November and December for BalletMet, whose dancers are engaged in lengthy preparatory rehearsals and then perform virtually around the clock for three weeks at Christmastime.

Musicians in the Columbus Symphony Orchestra and singers in the BalletMet Snow Chorus, heard toward the end of Act I, also participate at length. The orchestra discontinues its own activities each season until after New Year’s to accompany each performance live.

The Nutcracker, then, is much more than a charming bauble; the magic mix of Tchaikovsky’s music, E.T.A. Hoffman’s story and the traditions of Russian classical ballet, it is at once serious art and a community activity involving hundreds of performers, their families and their fans. As such, it is a benchmark for the health and well-being of a city’s cultural life.

All that said, it is pleasant to report that this year’s edition of The Nutcracker, now onstage at the Ohio Theatre, has achieved an admirable level of sophistication. David Nixon’s choreography and staging long have striven to serve two audiences, those who want to enjoy a night out and those who genuinely know and love ballet. I find this year’s Nutcracker more artistically pleasing than ever - without sacrificing a moment of the enriching participation of the cast’s many young members.

In this score, the composer was most inspired in the Snow Scene; likewise, so is Nixon and so are the gorgeous production values. With the exciting playing of the orchestra under the knowing baton of Gary Sheldon, last night’s performance by Hiromi Ushino and William Gentes would have drawn gasps of amazement anywhere, so captivating was their exuberant ice skating inspired dancing. If you are a Tchaikovsky and/or a ballet fan, you owe it to yourself to see this scene if no other, for it proves just why the Russian will never by topped as a composer for the dance.

Later, Elizabeth Zengara (Sugar Plum Fairy) and David Paul Kierce (a most bewitching Drosselmeyer) flourished in the much-more-mature but still brilliantly done Grand Pas de Deux, a glimpse at the adult world through children’s eyes that is anything but off-putting.

It is not easy for a company the size of BalletMet to undertake such a grand aesthetic statement and to do it well. The company’s Nutcracker should not be dismissed as a kiddy show. It is music and ballet in the grand tradition and a grand gift to the city.