Photo Credit: Phil Wayes

Saturday, November 7, 2009

Nutcrackery at NFUL: Round Two

You may recall that myself and three students performed in Moscow Ballet's Great Russian Nutcracker last year. My schedule probably won't allow for that this season, but my students are keeping the Nutcracker tradition alive and well.



A few weeks ago, four of my students made the trek from the suburbs to audition to be Polichnelles in Houston Ballet's Nutcracker. Seeing as the studios were all of THREE BLOCKS from a friend I was visiting, I decided I cruise over to the studios and support the girls.



I got there thrity minutes before the audition and found they were already stretching in the lobby, bursting with a sort nervous energy. They seem to nervous, though-- certainly not as nervous as I've been known to be-- and were all in high spirits.



Three o'clock rolled around. The twenty girls who had arrived to the audition were upstairs to begin the process. I sat downstairs and chatted with the moms for about an hour. Eventually, the kids all came back downstairs, chattering about the experience and about how the studios were OH MY GOSH AMAZING (Our studio is also pretty awesome; but the main studio there makes our main studio look like a coat closet). I asked when they would find out, and they said "they told us we'd know in a couple of days."

Well, three days later, I got an e-mail from my boss: One of my Level Four girls was cast! She's into week four(ish) of rehearsals. She hasn't really said a whole lot about the process, other than that it's a positive experience and she's really enjoying it. My boss and I are super proud-- one of our students will perform on the same stage as the fourth-largest ballet company in our country.

1 comment:

geraldine said...

Well done! I was a snowflake and a spanish chocolate in a staging of Nutcracker in Malta, the first time that a full ballet was staged by a Maltese dance company / dance school. This brought back all the memories and I simply enjoyed it. Unfortunately I don't dance much any more - I did it as a hobby rather than as a career. Those are very treasured memories...