Didn't we just celebrate Christmas last year?
It just never fricking stops. Every year like clockwork it comes around.
Then, blink, it's New Year's Eve and everybody's boring year-in-review lists and essays, and before you know it it's Valentine's Day and we've got Vermont Teddy Bears coming out of our ass.
Which is not to say I don't wish all of you special heartfelt holiday greetings.
Last night I essayed my first Nutcracker of the enchanted season. Let me stipulate that I'm not a Nut nut, unlike some balletomanes I could mention who have so many Nutcrackers notched on their bedposts that they can tell you all about the variant foreign and domestic productions, excisions, interpolations, and hooter size on Mother Ginger until your eyeballs fall out and roll around on the floor. I suppose it's useful to know, simply as conversation fodder, that in the Buenos Aires version Drosselmeyer sends one of the cavalry out to fetch him a pack of Camels (very tricky thing to mime, by the way) and that in the Tampa-St. Pete production there's a layover in Atlanta, but too much pedantry can take the sparkle out of the snowy pageantry, so please, think of the children.
There were a ton of kiddie-roonies on stage last night and a ton in the audience for the Joffrey Ballet School's Nutcracker, choreographed and directed by Michael Chernov and Gelsey Kirkland, and the evening has to counted as a splendid success--the production was charming, sweet without being cloying, comic without being broad, and inspiritedly danced by the hopes of tomorrow. Haglund, who was there last night, though we must have missed each other in the mad crush of humanity, writes:
...the dancers are a group with extremely wide ranging abilities. But each one carries Gelsey?s sensibilities. The arms are low, the bodies are high, the fingers and hands are perfectly formed, the eyes reach for the balcony. Basically, the art is in the details, not the athleticism. Nice to see.
The beautiful costumes and handsome scenery including a grandfather clock with huge owl wings appended to it added much to the charm of this Nutcracker at Friday's premiere performance. The little soldiers, who were sent to fight the mice, arrived on stage inside a huge armoire and descended to the fight via a big green slide. Of course, each soldier slid down precisely on the music. There was a cute dancing donkey. The Arabian section, often cast with only one or two dancers, had soloists and a corps.
The ballet?s choreography overly-challenged some of the dancers, but even when the feet, legs, and centers went awry, the upper bodies still maintained composure and the assigned character. For students who don?t get on stage much, this was an impressive feat.
I'm glad Haglund clarified that it was a donkey on stage, because when it appeared I thought it was a special guest appearance by Secretariat from Craig Ferguson's show, which may explain why I was the only one in the audience who stood up and started dancing a crazy hello. Well, these things happen, and the children around me seemed to enjoy it, judging by their gurgling laughter.
Source: http://www.vanityfair.com/online/wolcott/2010/12/gad-christmas-again-didnt-we.html
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