The Nutcracker is a holiday classic. Ballet companies all over North Texas tell the story of Clara, the Nutcracker Prince and the journey to the kingdom of sweets.

When Chung-Lin Tseng takes the stage this season, it will be especially sweet.

The Taiwan-born dancer and his Italian-born wife Enrica Tseng came to the U.S. from Seoul, Korea in 1998 to dance and later founded Ballet Frontier in Fort Worth. Chung-Lin is the artistic director; Enrica the artistic advisor.

A medical scare last year almost brought a finale to a decades-long career.

“He kept complaining about the sight from his right eye during the summer, and we thought it was, you know, age and minor, minor problems,” Enrica Tseng said.

His primary care doctor sent him to an eye doctor, but he couldn’t discover the problem.

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