MANKATO — The story is pretty much the same.

“The Nutcracker” takes place in a city in southern Germany about 100 years ago on Christmas Eve. A party is being held at the home of Judge and Frau Silberhaus, and their children, Klara and Fritz, are looking forward to the gathering of family and friends.

A guest, Herr Drosselmeyer, gives Clara a nutcracker, which seems to be more than just a toy. At the stroke of midnight, toys come to life, mice grow large and a magical battle commences.

Mankato Ballet Company, which has been around about 25 years, always preserves the magic of the beloved classic ballet — the wicked are defeated, a crown is won, and the nutcracker turns into a handsome prince. But this year, the 16th time the company will present “The Nutcracker, Mankato Ballet is offering a fresh look. The ballet is Saturday and Sunday at Gustavus Adolphus College in St. Peter.

“It’s so exciting,” said Jane Schwickert, Mankato Ballet board president. “Mostly what I feel is so proud of our dancers. These girls have worked so hard and have been rehearsing since September, and some have been rehearsing since this summer.”

Schwickert also is impressed with Eryn Michlitsch, the new artistic director of Mankato Ballet, to whom she attributes the new vision of the annual production.

“My vision for ‘The Nutcracker’ was to update it a little bit, and make the dancers think outside the ‘box’ that was their previous picture of ‘Nutcracker,’” Michlitsch said. “There are hundreds of versions of ‘The Nutcracker,’ and no one really knows what the original one was exactly. MBC had been doing a very similar version of the same story every year for nearly 20 years, and many of the dancers didn’t even know there were other versions of the story.”

Michlitsch is a graduate of Bethany Lutheran College and has been a teacher and choreographer in the Twin Cities area for several years. She and Sophia Barrett, an instructor and choreographer for Mankato Ballet for the second year, have been working to put the holiday production together. It’s been important to them both to preserve the strong history of “The Nutcracker” in southern Minnesota, while allowing a new look to come through with updated costumes, sets and choreography.

“When you have a new artistic director, they come with a fresh take and new ideas,” Schwickert said. “It can make it exciting, especially for those people who have come year after year.”

Michlitsch said the biggest change might be something the audience doesn’t notice right away. All the choreography is new, so even the “Waltz of the Flowers” has changed.

“This has taken a huge amount of time, and I couldn’t have gotten it done without the help of Sophia Barrett,” she said.

About 80 percent of the costumes are new, replacing some that were about 20 years old. Sets also have been updated and new ones were added to liven up the snow and party scenes.

“The most exciting new set we are adding is a growing Christmas tree,” she said. “We are really excited about this new prop. The tree will look about 5 feet tall while the party scene is going on, but when Clara finds herself in a dream with large mice and life-sized Nutcracker, the tree begins to grow to over 10 feet tall.”

Schwickert promises the ballet will not be a “New Age funky ‘Nutcracker.’” When she says “fresh and new,” she means subtle but noticeable.

“Part of what’s beautiful with ‘The Nutcracker’ is the classical piece of it and the tradition and all of that,” Schwickert said. “We don’t ever want to take that away.”