Nutcracker Suite!

'Tis the season for the little blond girl to lift up the curtain on the giant stage to discover the world of The Nutcracker Ballet!  Anyone else remember that commercial gem?  How old is that little girl by now anyway!?  

Moving on, you must bear with me as I tell you a little story about my childhood.  It is the only way to truly get across exactly what this magical ballet does to my soul.

When I was a little girl all I wanted to do was to be a ballerina.  I was in dance lessons from the age of three, practicing leaps and twirls and jumps in my parents living room in tutus and tights.  I loved the stage, the lights, the blue eyeshadow and the red lipstick.  (why on earth the dance teachers of the world ever let our parents put this hideous combination on our faces as children is beyond me, there must have been a makeup guide from 1982 they were all following!)   My parents knew how much I loved dance and when I was ten years old they took both my sister and me to see The Nutcracker Ballet in Seattle.  We wore matching plaid skirts and red turtlenecks, which isn't important to this story I just thought it was cute, and my mom bought us a cast figurine of Clara which hung on a red ribbon around our neck.  I recently found this charm while unpacking boxes from my childhood into my adult home (no I did not cry, ok maybe a little).

I remember that first trip to the ballet, the Two Hour car ride to Seattle seemed like forever (it really still is) but the theater was gorgeous and the Pacific Northwest Ballet Company did the most wonderful job.  Since that day, my parents took us three more times over the years, and my sixth grade class went on a field trip.  I even had the pleasure of being an extra in the traveling production when i was a teenager.  Made my nutcracker debut as a toy soldier on a horse!   I bet you are all thinking that I wanted to be Clara on stage with her beautiful dress dancing to the music of Tchaikovsky's Nutcracker Suite, but you would be mistaken dear harboites.  I wanted to be the Russian dancers jumping high into the air to the classical number Trepak. 

Now I told you all of this to let you in on a secret, everyone here on the harbor has the chance to make their own Nutcracker memories this November 13 and 14.  The D & R Theater is playing host to the Moscow Ballet and will be showing the legendary Nutcracker tonight and tomorrow on stage.  Make memories for you or you and your children and treat yourself to this iconic ballet.  You wont be sorry.