New Experience #30 - The Nutcracker Ballet
My final new experience of the year was a bit of a 2-for-1. Apparently everyone else went to see The Nutcracker as a field trip during their middle school years. I, however, made it to the age of 29 without ever seeing The Nutcracker. In fact, I had never been to the ballet until Saturday night, December 19th.
Now, I don’t know too much about the technical aspects of ballet. There are some things that I can watch the dancer execute and think, ‘Gee, that looks difficult.’ But no one will ask me to be a technical judge for the dancing ability. The real highlight for me was the story of this ballet.
Before Saturday, I didn’t even know the story line of The Nutcracker, so I’m gonna share it here. There is a family with 2 children, a girl and a boy, who have a Christmas party where lots of other families and kids come. The little girls chat and giggle while the little boys run around and make lots of noise. An uncle comes to the party and brings fun gifts - musical instruments for the boys and dolls for the girls. The uncle gives the main little girl, Clare, a nutcracker. The party ends and everyone heads off to bed. Clare has lots of crazy dreams - a battle of the nutcracker and his army against the Rat King and his rat soldiers, and a fun adventure in a sweet shop. The sweet shop was just fun! There were cute little cupcakes that danced around. Mother Ginger, a very large baker, came out and gingerbread people emerged from under her skirt to dance around. And Clare watched all this adventure from atop an oversized cake.
I don’t know if I could fully enjoy a ballet with no story behind the dance, but I certainly enjoyed this final new experience for the year. Now, onto the Birthday celebration…
2 years ago • Notes