For 66 years, the Atlanta Ballet has dazzled audiences with "The Nutcracker," set to Tchaikovsky's iconic score.

While the classic holiday story and music haven't changed, the company has updated the ballet to be more inclusive.

It was the music and the characters of the holiday classic that brought Ángel Ramírez from Trinidad, Cuba, to Atlanta.

"My first ballet that I watched was 'The Nutcracker.' And I told my mom, 'Mom, this is what I want to do. I want to start dancing.' So here we are," Ramírez said.

Ramírez is dancing across the stage as the lead in the Atlanta Ballet's production this season. He's been with the company for five years.

"I started dancing when I was 10 years old," Ramírez said.

His co-star, Airi Igarashi, has him beat. She's been dancing since she was 4. Igarashi is from Japan and has danced all over the world. She's been with the Atlanta Ballet for nine years.

"It's very special for me to do 'The Nutcracker.' The music is beautiful. It's very meaningful for me," Igarashi said.

CBS News Atlanta's own Madeline Montgomery enrolled in dance classes after seeing Atlanta Ballet's "The Nutcracker" for the first time, and she's not alone. Many kids do, and that's why dancers in the company say it's so important to see diversity on stage.

"I'm Cuban, I represent my Latin culture a lot, so every year since I've been in this company, I've done Spanish," Ramírez said.

In "The Nutcracker," the characters take the audience through the Land of Sweets, a magical realm with cultural influences from China, France, the Middle East, Spain, and Russia.

"I feel very representative of the dance. It just comes naturally, and I think it really reaches the audience," Ramírez said.

The German fairy tale "The Nutcracker and the Mouse King" was adapted in the 1800s into classical ballet, but its second act relied heavily on stereotypes.

Atlanta Ballet's "Nutcracker" was reinvented — most recently in 2018 — to celebrate culture while giving a nod to its classic choreography.

"It is a very hard ballet, but also a fun ballet to dance," Igarashi said.

"Knowing that it's a different audience every performance, it's also very inspiring just to keep doing our best every single show," Ramírez said.

Each pirouette inspires the next prima ballerina.

The Atlanta Ballet company is performing at the Cobb Energy Performing Arts Center through Dec. 27. You can get tickets on the company's website.