see "The NutCracker"

When I was much younger, the dance school I went to in Chicago did the nutcracker yearly. So, three years of dancing it.

In high school, I worked in the performing arts center as a stage hand, so I worked the nutcracker two Christmas seasons.

And five years ago, I finally had a chance to sit in the audience and watch it.

DONE!

This was such a beautiful performance. I got into the performance hall and just as I sat down, the orchestra began playing the first song. It was delightful to hear all these familiar melodies performed with the ballet. Our seats were probably the worst in the house, but I still had a fun time.

But I was in the third grade, and don’t remember much. I have a CD with some of the music, though!

Anyhow, I get to go see it with some other members of the KEY club who signed up for. (I didn’t think I’d get to go, since they already had as many people as they could take…but somebody decided to cancel. What luck!)

And I’m going…tomorrow! I’m also going to buy my Mom a ticket, since she’s never seen it. She’ll be sitting behind me, so I won’t be able to see her reaction…but I think she may like it. Yay!

Sammamish Washington 2005

I’ve actually seen The Nutcracker before and even performed in an elementary school play, but both of these events have been long over 10 years ago. I would really enjoy seeing a performance of this classic this year!

But the rest of us enjoyed it well enough. It is a bit slow. In our fast-paced Nintendo-raised generation, it’s a bit hard to sit down for something that slow without falling asleep, but hey, I like Proust, too. And Russian literature. So maybe this was “in my genre,” or however they say it on Monty Python. But, really. See it at least once; it’s totally worth it.

So, the performance—as a whole, I thought it was incredible.

The party scene had WAY too much going on, in my opinion. I didn’t seem to have enough eyes to take it all in. I honestly believe that Yvonne had one of the best party scenes I’ve seen, because she kept it simply… Also, I just felt as if her choreography was really cute last year. But, that’s the beauty of ballet as an art… everyone has their different interpretations. The battle scene was really well done—I loved the mice costumes. They were especially well done. It was excellent choreography, and I enjoyed it. I just kept waiting for the mice to step on each other’s tails though. lol Snow was amazing… I just love the whole scene. The Snow Queen tutu was beautiful. However, I have yet to see a girl dance it with as much beauty as Annelise did last year at Ballet Lubbock. That girl was freaking incredible. Not to say that the girl who danced it last night wasn’t a talented dancer, because she was… the whole cast was… but Annelise literally brought me to tears last year.

Act II… The Sugar Plum Fairy was amazing. Ah-maz-ing. I loved the Spanish variation; it was colorful, elegant, and in character. Arabian was incredible! I swear that woman had no bones in her back, she had such amazing back flexibility and control. Chinese was a fun number that wasn’t at all what I was expecting. The two men who were in those roles really took on the character well. Merliton was amazing; the costumes were absolutely beautiful. I was a little disappointed in the Russian variation, but there’s no denying that the guy dancing it had a lot of talent. He also had a lot of his emotion in his dancing, which was a nice change from last week’s rendition. Flowers… well what can I say about flowers… J’adore. The costumes were so beautiful. The dancing was exquisite. I loved every moment of it. I felt like my 11 year old cousin when I took her to see San Francisco Ballet’s Nutcracker a few years ago… she was sitting on the edge of her seat, leaning as far as she could over the box, taking it all in…

It just never gets old.

It seems as if I’m either dancing in it or watching it. Last year, I was dancing in it… this year, I’m going to see it as I have just moved to a new city. Twice, probably.

Tonight, I went to see the Metropolitan Ballet Company (DFW area) perform a Russian variation on this classic tale. The costumes and sets were impeccably designed. Herr Drosselmeyer stole the show, in my opinion. The professional dancers overshadowed the students, but they were certainly talented. The Waltz of the Flowers brought tears to my eyes; every part about that scene was incredible, even though there was not a Dew Drop Fairy. I didn’t think that the character dance choreography was as strong as it could have been, but it was interesting to see a different take on things to say the least.

Next weekend, I’m planning on seeing Texas Ballet Theatre’s rendition.

the dress rehearsal tonight. I thought I was going to get to watch it in peace,as I left my 6-year old at home with my 19-year who was to babysit him. That’s what I thought! About 10 miles on our way to town (just one exit before we were to get off the freeway)I heard a sound in the backseat. My 6-year old son had been hiding on the floor of the backseat,so he could go with me tonight. So, it wasn’t as relaxing and enjoyable as it could have been. He did enjoy the performance and watched the whole thing. It was only the breaks he couldn’t sit still for.