...random thoughts, opinions and secrets on children... aging... cooking... crafts... nature...divorce...second chances...
and whatever else I deem curious...
~Copyright 2017. Hootie~

Friday, December 03, 2010

How to get into the Christmas Spirit...

...watch The Nutcracker Ballet! Details to watch it on-line, for free, below.

Several years ago my daughter created this picture for an art class project. Every fall the elementary school Art teacher, at our school, organizes all the students to participate in a fund raiser. The original artwork gets sent away and transformed into garden flags, note cards, magnets, pillow cases...etc. My daughter's artwork is a scene from the Nutcracker. We are looking at Clara's pointe shoes and the back ground features all the roles that the pre-college ballerina's, here at IU, perform.
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When my daughter was in second grade we took her to watch The Nutcracker. She was mesmerized and said, "I want to do THAT!" So we found out what she'd need to do to 'do that' and her ballet lessons began. The following October she had her first audition for her dream and has been dancing in IU's production of The Nutcracker ever since. We figured out this is her seventh year to dance on stage in December. She has danced as a Mother Ginger child, Clara's friend/party child, a solider, an officer, a Trepak and this year she adds a role traditionally performed by the college freshman...an adult mouse! For several years now she has danced in two roles at each of the four performances.

The lessons learned from this discipline are numerous: team work, time management, how important sleep and good eating really are, following directions, counting on others (like your mom to help in a pinch), and what it takes to achieve a dream just to name a few.

This past Monday through Thursday has been tech week. Each day my ballerina has been living at school for 6 1/2 hours, at the Musical Art Center for 7 1/2 hours and then at home for the remaining 10 hours.

It's show time tonight! My holiday treat to my readers is to share the web address for Indiana University's Jacob School of Music live streaming of The Nutcracker. Times for the production are tonight and tomorrow night at 8 pm EST, and tomorrow and Sunday at 2 pm EST. Here's the link: Watch IU's 52nd Annual Production of The Nutcracker; click here. This link becomes active just minutes before the curtain goes up! I will be watching on-line tonight and then attending both of the 2 pm performances...lucky me! I can't wait!

Enjoy friends and Happy Holidays! :)

1 comment:

Lauranie said...

ooooohh!! I watched it this morning with my coffee!!! LOVED IT! They really do put on a wonderful production!! Can't wait for the day she is in one of the lead roles!! :) thanks for sharing! xo