Sunday, December 5, 2010

nutcracker

So I'm going to follow up my bitter Christmas post with one about something I have to admit I love about Christmas time....The Nutcracker Ballet. My childhood dance studio puts it on every year, and I went home this weekend just to see it. I was in it every year until my sophomore year when weekends during the fall couldn't handle all day Saturday cross country meets, Sunday Nutcracker practice, and homework. So for the past 5 years I've just been a dedicated watcher.

This year I couldn't help but laugh at so much of it. There are so many things I could take in that I never thought about or noticed when I was in it. One simply being the fact that I could step up there and do every single dance I've been in exactly. It's timeless, and the steps only have changed slightly. But it's so fun and beautiful all at the same time. I wouldn't trade my Nutcracker memories for anything...

  • The time the tree caught on fire as it grew.
  • The evolution of polychinelles from Raggedy Ann dolls, to gingerbread people, to clowns.
  • Begging my "dad" in the party scene to carry me offstage as we left.
  • Bribing Clara before the show to give me the nut when she got to do the Nutcracker.
  • When Greeting wore those gosh-awful skin-tight, candy cane body suits.
  • When all the snow poured out at once instead of the light trickle.
  • Watching Angels go to the wrong tree every year and then mess it all up.
  • Meredith slipping and falling on the "soapy" snow as she went offstage.
  • The year I was a toy and one of us stood up and collapsed to the floor because her legs were asleep from sitting for so long. I think I laughed.
  • Thinking Tony was the funniest person alive when he did the Mechanical Doll dance purposely wrong.
  • Getting individually sized and fitted to be the first ever to wear the new Russian costumes...custom made for us.
  • When the umbrellas for Chinese were still those superrrrr old yellowish, smelly ones.
  • When Gumdrops still existed.
  • Watching from the wings as the male professional danced...we were always so amazed.
  • The fact that I was NEVER in the fight scene. Don't know how I got away with that.
  • The old costumes that the mice had...they were legit mangey fur.
  • The year my grade were the Claras. Let's just say a huge fight went down. Enough said.
  • And lots and lots of yelling at every practice, but we still loved it.
It's a classic. 

xoxo, Maria

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