Nutcracker
Fun fact: when retail workers start complaining about hearing Christmas music on November 1st, choir singers, orchestra musicians, and ballet dancers understand your pain but also sort of laugh at you a little.
The truth is, we've been rehearsing for our holiday concerts and for Christmas mass singalong and for Nutcracker since about mid-September. Now that November is drawing to a close, we enter extreme rehearsal mode. Part of this is good--we no longer have jazz, a class I struggle in, with a teacher that doesn't teach so much as demand why we don't understand her. Part of it is bad--I miss partnering class.
But still, I am not bitter. This Christmas season is where I thrive. From the first day I picked up a violin in the fourth grade, all the way through orchestra and string quartets in college, from seven years of choir in Catholic school, from PNB's Nutcracker through college and now at Joffrey, I still have a love of Christmas music and Nutcracker. I am sure this will wane as I continue my career, but right now I am happy.
However, despite dreaming of a career as a professional performer, I am awfully shy and suffer from stage fright every time I step foot on stage (even as a dancer/orchestra violinist/choir girl/drama kid). So when I got my role this year, I was overjoyed, because for the Nutcracker at JBS this year, I was originally told to learn an understudy role in the back line. The next week, I was moved up to line leader. At first I was unsure if it was permanent or if I was just learning a part to learn a part because that it what you do in the corps, but I almost cried in rehearsal. I had no idea what I was doing and no idea what the steps were and I knew that everyone was watching. But my teacher reassured me that I'll get it soon, and a friend that I admire greatly taught me the steps, and a girl who's been in the program before told me that she had a hard time with the role as well.
I've since been moved back to my last spot, and I've learned how to move my arms softly, like a little snowflake, and teachers I don't even know have told me that I've been improving.
We're only two weeks from Nutcracker--even less so, actually, and we only just learned Spanish dance in its entirety, but I am so excited, and I'm also excited for what comes after Nutcracker: seeing my parents.
The truth is, we've been rehearsing for our holiday concerts and for Christmas mass singalong and for Nutcracker since about mid-September. Now that November is drawing to a close, we enter extreme rehearsal mode. Part of this is good--we no longer have jazz, a class I struggle in, with a teacher that doesn't teach so much as demand why we don't understand her. Part of it is bad--I miss partnering class.
But still, I am not bitter. This Christmas season is where I thrive. From the first day I picked up a violin in the fourth grade, all the way through orchestra and string quartets in college, from seven years of choir in Catholic school, from PNB's Nutcracker through college and now at Joffrey, I still have a love of Christmas music and Nutcracker. I am sure this will wane as I continue my career, but right now I am happy.
However, despite dreaming of a career as a professional performer, I am awfully shy and suffer from stage fright every time I step foot on stage (even as a dancer/orchestra violinist/choir girl/drama kid). So when I got my role this year, I was overjoyed, because for the Nutcracker at JBS this year, I was originally told to learn an understudy role in the back line. The next week, I was moved up to line leader. At first I was unsure if it was permanent or if I was just learning a part to learn a part because that it what you do in the corps, but I almost cried in rehearsal. I had no idea what I was doing and no idea what the steps were and I knew that everyone was watching. But my teacher reassured me that I'll get it soon, and a friend that I admire greatly taught me the steps, and a girl who's been in the program before told me that she had a hard time with the role as well.
I've since been moved back to my last spot, and I've learned how to move my arms softly, like a little snowflake, and teachers I don't even know have told me that I've been improving.
We're only two weeks from Nutcracker--even less so, actually, and we only just learned Spanish dance in its entirety, but I am so excited, and I'm also excited for what comes after Nutcracker: seeing my parents.
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