Nutcracker

The Nutcracker Ballet has been a holiday tradition for me for as long as I can remember. It started with seeing The Nutcracker every year, and then when I was old enough, I loved being in the ballet. One year in high school, I got to see The Nutcracker in the fabulous Dorothy Chandler Pavilion. When I was on my own, I got the video of The Nutcracker with Gelsey Kirkland so that I could watch it every year, even when I couldn't afford tickets to a live show.

This year the tradition continues with Sparkle and Glitter. I'd taken Sparkle to The Nutcracker a couple of times, but this year was Glitter's first Nutcracker. We went to see the show put on by the dance studio where the girls attend. Afterwards the girls got to meet the professional dancers who were brought in to play the Sugar Plum Fairy and her cavalier.



Glitter was enraptured the entire performance. Once the lights went down, she stared and stared, not saying a word. On the way out of the theatre, she kept trying to dance on her tippy toes. Sparkle was also full of excitement and questions about how the show worked and what was real and what wasn't. At intermission I was finally able to convince her that her constant whispering really bothered everyone around us and during the second act she managed to keep her flow of comments contained to sign language.