Off to see the Nutcracker!

It was my first time to see the Nutcracker live. Going to the ballet was not in my parents’ range of experience and they couldn’t have paid for tickets in any case, and when my children were small I couldn’t afford such an extravagance. But today, fully prepared, Bella and I (both kicking our feet with excitement as we waited for the curtain) were transfixed. When the mysterious uncle appeared in his cape, Bella whispered excitedly, “Drosselmeier!”  

The Hoffmann tale on which the ballet is based is about a little girl named Marie who lives in a stiff, confining, patriarchal bourgeois family. Drosselmeier is transgressive: he gives his niece glimpses of worlds beyond her uptight family (named Stahlbaum or in English, “steel tree”). Marie escapes in her dreams from the rule-bound Stahlbaums into a world of fairies and Spanish, Arabian, Chinese, and African dancers. I gave Bella this perspective as I read her the story and we watched the DVD of the Baryshnikov version. She and I were both ready to let our imaginations run wild as we watched what has become, ironically, a bourgeois holiday ritual. For us, it was so much more than that.

My son took a picture of us as I collected Bella for our adventure, and at the theatre a photo-booth had been set up, a kind of castle-and-moat set where children could strike what they imagined were ballet poses (see Extra).

In other news, hooray and thanks to the Blipfuture team! I have successfully donated. I hope everyone does.