First ever Nutcracker
Merry Christmans! What better way to celebrate it than to write about my first-ever Nutcracker experience?
We, the party guests!
Committed to Playmate, committed to ballet.
Ordinarily, people would start their Nutcracker experience as a toy solider or as a little mouse, I started mine as a party parent.
I began my ballet journey at the age of 24 so despite having over 8 years of training now, I knew I would never be a professional. And by extension, I never thought I could perform on stage, much less in a full production of the Nutcracker. My ballet studio BalletNova put together an adult student showcase a few months ago where I participated in two dances. Needless to say, I caught the stage bug. Both time and space seem to be warped when you are performing on stage in the best way possible. I felt free and yet in perfect control. I couldn’t see the audience and yet was keenly aware of their presence and energy. I wanted those moments on stage to last longer.
Fast forward to October the school began to prepare for the Nutcracker. It was mainly a production to showcase the conservatory division dancers but a thought came to me - would there possibly be a spot for me?
It turned out that in the first act, adult dancers were needed for the party scene. You bet your bottom dollar I signed up for the audition right away. On the day of the audition, the choreographer gave us some very simple combinations to do to get a sense of people’s abilities. Afterwards he thanked us and said that he’d be in touch.
Even though I wasn’t worried at all about getting role, my little heart still leapt with excitement when I saw my name on the casting list. I may or may not have spent a quick second imagining that it was “swan queen” instead of “party guest” next to my name. A few weeks after that, rehearsals began.
For us party guests, there wasn’t a whole lot to do. Our main role is story-telling and framing the stage so that the little ones can dance in front of us. While I would have loved to dance more, I was happy enough to be a part of the production and observed how dedicated everyone was. Diligence and dedication are some of the most important lessons ballet teaches. You really see that manifest during the Nutcracker season because the schedules for the conservatory dancers are grueling. But despite how exhausted they felt, juggling school, training, rehearsals, and who knows what else, they gave it all in each and every rehearsal. I tip my proverbial hat to all of them.
As we approached the performance over the Thanksgiving weekend, the rehearsals became more intense both in terms of intensity and frequency. I took the week of Thanksgiving off from work so that the entire week I woke up for a calendar full of ballet classes, violin lessons, Nutcracker rehearsals, tutoring, blogging, reading, and working out. I don’t recall being this busy or this happy in a long while. I was constantly hustling from one place to another but I felt so fulfilled. I suppose this is what people mean by “do what you love and you’ll never work a day in your life.”
The day of the first dress rehearsal was when we saw the costumes for the first time. I had no idea that Dr. and Mrs. Stahlbaum’s Christmas party was Vegas shotgun wedding themed. All of us Party Mamas burst out laughing at the sight of each other in lacy prom dresses with gaudy costume jewelries. Clearly we all got rich overnight. We acquired wealth and not yet taste.
First day of dress rehearsal
Look! My costume. It’s got my name on it!
We were scheduled for 4 shows over two days and since the I was only in the Act I, I was in and out of the theatre multiple times a day. Each time I walked briskly past the auditorium entrance and bee-lined to the backstage entrance I got a little jolt of excitement - was this how real artists felt each day when they went to work? In an interview Sara Mearns, principal with New York City Ballet, said that she never said “I’m going to work.” but rather “I’m going to the theatre.” When I was backstage, I explored each room and corridor, every stage contraption, observed the stagehands at work…I wanted to take in as much as I can because I didn’t know when I would have the opportunity to be on stage again.
View from the stage
Setting up for the next show
All four shows went very well, with only two champagne glasses broken between the 10 of us, no big deal. I loved every single moment of it and wished that those magical moments on stage could last much, much longer.
Ballet has changed my life in more ways than one. I’m so glad to be a part of Nutcracker at BalletNova. If you wish to take a peak of our performances, you might download them right here.
