It’s A Wrap!

Our Nutcracker weekend began with preparations.  Our ballet teacher, Ms. Hume, needed some helpers getting things ready for the performance.  So on Thursday, I took Alix and Kate and a few of their friends to the auditorium to help out.  They were there for about 3 hours and then the other kids and I arrived with some pizza, before we went through the Spacing Rehearsal.

             

The Spacing Rehearsal is a time for the ballet students to see how they will be spaced on stage for the performance.  Since the auditorium is much larger than the ballet school’s dance area, this requires taping marks to the floor to show center stage, half stage, etc. and walking through the routines to know how far apart they need to be from each other.

Here are a few of the adults, and their “daughters”, who joined in for the Party Scene, which was about the first 20 minutes of the performance.

And the rehearsal also includes a few pieces that haven’t been done yet, like Isabella opening an actual box with a bow when she receives the Nutcracker.  Up until then, she had just pretended to open something.

And then there was also a good bit of waiting, while directions were given.

     

Here she is; our wonderful Ms. Hume! 

Although she is giving instructions here – she almost always has a smile when we see her!  She is one of the kindest, most patient people I’ve known.  The kids just love her.

 

I caught this one of Colleen taking pictures.    She got a lot of great shots. (a few of which I borrowed for this post)

      

And like I said, there was a lot of waiting and watching for the Spacing Rehearsal.

 

I have to include these twin sisters, Laura and Rachel, who were instrumental to the whole thing.  Because Ms. Hume needs a double hip replacement, she is physically limited in what she can do to teach the dances.  These girls learned most of the routines and taught them to the dancers. In addition, they themselves danced.  They are sweet, thoughtful girls.  Our kids love them.

 

Friday night was the Full Dress Rehearsal!

There was a lot of stage make-up, which the girls were pretty thrilled about..

    

I was a little less than thrilled with the false eyelashes.  In fact, Saturday night before the performance, I was like a one-armed paper hanger trying to re-glue them on Kate and the twins, and myself!

 

Glenn looked wonderful, as he and Isabella walked around backstage checking things out.

 

Mr. Steffy, aka Drosselmeier, aka the tap teacher, aka husband to Ms. Hume, led the dancers in a pre-performance warm up.

(you can see Kate in her Doll costume )

 

And then it was time to do a run-through of the show.  Dress Rehearsal is the first time where everyone involved in the production is finally together.  Up until now, the routines have been done individually at the ballet school during ballet classes.  So there was a lot of starting and stopping, timing to get down, and places to be figured out.  It certainly was nothing like the actual performance, which of course couldn’t stop at all.

 

I don’t know how familiar you are with the Nutcracker story.  I’ll try to tell you in a nutshell.

(What?!  I couldn’t help it.)

Our version included a twin sister for Clara, named Sara, and her mischievous brother, Fritz.

Their parents are having a Christmas party and have invited lots of friends.  There will be gifts, and dancing, of course!

And one surprise visitor, Uncle Drosselmeier, who brings dancing soldiers and 3 unique, life-sized dancing dolls (one of which was Kate).

He also brings a special gift for Clara…..the Nutcracker.

She absolutely loves him and dances around with him.

 

Everything goes well until Fritz, behaving somewhat unlike his usual self, approaches Clara and handsomely asks her to dance.  She’s a little perplexed, but goes along with it.

   

But of course, he really was being naughty.  He tries to take the Nutcracker and it is broken when he falls.

Naturally the girls (and a few of the adults) are quite upset.  But then Uncle Drosselmeier fixes the Nutcracker!

All too soon, the party ends.  Everyone leaves except Clara and Sara, who search for the Nutcracker before they go to bed.

 

After the party ends and the girls are asleep, everything around them changes. They are awakened to see that there is a Mouse Queen who battles the Nutcracker in an epic sword fight.

           

He is victorious.  Afterwards he becomes a Prince, and he and Clara go to the Land of Sweets and watch many beautiful dances.

     

 

Like these pretty little snow angels.

 

A beautiful Dawn Fairy.

 

And many other lovely fairies and dancers, like these Chinese dancers, the Mirlitons, and a Sugar Plum Fairy.

      

 

 

 

At the end of story, Sara rushes out to give Clara the Nutcracker doll..

 

And Clara holds the Nutcracker high, turning around and wondering whether it had all been a dream…

 

or not!

Another Costume Peek…

 

Kate is going to be one of 3 different dolls in the Christmas Party Scene of our Nutcracker ballet next Saturday. 

She is the Kissy Doll.

She blows little kisses with stiff doll-like arms to the guests at the party.

 

I love her costume – it looks so pretty on her.  It came with a little hair thing, but her ballet teacher asked me to make her a “huge” bow to go on her head instead. 

So I did.

 

 

I had some leftover red shantung fabric from Christmas dresses I made for the girls a few years ago.  Added a little red tulle I had in the closet, plus a strand of red sequins for a little sparkle.

 

 

She likes it.

Summer Ballet Camps

 

We’re blessed to have a wonderful ballet school right here in our little town.  The teacher and her husband were both professional ballet dancers for many years and have had their own ballet schools several times.  They own the studio and share the many duties associated with having your own business, while working full-time jobs elsewhere.  They are dedicated and loving, patient and kind. 

We love them.

It was Glenn’s idea to start the girls in ballet, back in November of 2008.  They’ve learned a ton, and have participated in 2 recitals so far, Copellia and Sleeping Beauty.

The last couple of years they’ve been excited to participate in the week-long summer ballet camps Ms. Hume provided for them.

Olivia and Kate were both part of the Princess Ballet Camp.  The little girls dressed in their choice of tutu and wings and did all sorts of fun Princess-type things.  They colored princess story pages, watched 5 of their favorite princesses dance, had princess snacks, and listened to Ms. Hume read them a different princess story each day.  Kate participated because she was Princess Ariel.  A perfect Ariel, if you ask me.

Here are a few pictures showing how much fun they had…

 

Kate was a very popular Ariel with the little girls.

 

Here is Olivia with two of her BFFs – Kate Chungwai and Cousin Claire.

 

I love this shot of them stretching their little toes..

 

 

And then the twins and Kate had fun learning different types of dance – including Irish Step Dance from a local dancer who competes nationally.

 

 

 

 

 

These fun costumes were provided by the ballet teacher.  The girls made their own headpieces and beaded the necklaces during the week. 

The camp week culminated on Friday with a special performance for the parents.  The girls danced to two different types of music, one was Irish and the other Indian. 

Here they are on the final day! 

 

 

Beautiful girls!

 

Although they were sad for the fun to end, they’re looking forward to a new year of ballet.  Plus this year is a recital year, so come May, they’ll get to dress up again in gorgeous costumes. 

Life is grand!