Nutcracker Memories

AAhhhh late-afternoon of Christmas Day. By now, most children whose families celebrate Christmas will have torn through layers upon layers of wrapping paper, and are now sleeping peacefully as they crash from their sugar highs brought on by all the sweets they have stuffed themselves with the last 24 hours. Anyway, as I sit here reflecting on the Holidays and what they mean to me, I can’t help but think of my childhood memories and one thing that was ALWAYS a big part of them when I was growing up: The Nutcracker.

My first exposure to that famous score by Tchaikovsky was back in 1983 when I went to go see my sister dance as Clara with a small dance school in Maryland. I can remember feeling envious of the kids in the party scene as they seemed to be having so much fun up there on stage. The following year, my sister had moved on to the Washington School of Ballet, and I was “drafted” as a boy for the party scene, and as a “Little Cook” for the Mother Ginger dance in the second act.

For most of the next fifteen years—no matter what ballet school or company I was with—I was in “Nuts”. It got to the point where the Holiday season meant Nutcracker, and vice versa. It’s funny now, but those times that I was in a production of Nuts that went most of December (not to mention weekend rehearsals beginning in September) I would get SO sick of hearing that music—especially when I would hear it in stores. Now—more than a decade since I last danced—hearing that music only brings back fond memories of childhood.

What does Nutcracker mean to you? Any fond/bad memories you’d like to share?