Holiday Nutcracker Guest Post

My Experience in The Nutcracker Ballet by Natalia, Age 8



Natalia

School was finished and I was free, but I still had a performance. It was opening night at Lincoln Center. I was nervous. The bus finally came. I got on. After a while my stop came. I got off at 66^th Street and went backstage. All the kids who were dancers at The School of American Ballet and had parts in the Nutcracker were there. I played jacks and tag while we waited to go onstage. The person who played Clara’s Uncle kept coming back to tell everyone to "shut up" or the audience will hear us. But it didn’t work because we were too excited. Finally the lady with the makeup came and she put big round red circles on our cheeks.

It was time. I went on stage and the curtain went up and I saw thousands of people in front of me. I was a soldier so I was running around saluting in a battle with the rats.  After that was finished they carried us away. They were bigger than me. They ran with their tails dragging behind them. They scared me, especially the e King Rat because he had so many heads. But the Nutcracker Prince killed him.

So then the kids who were soldiers went home but not me. I had another part. I had to run to the bathroom and wash off my cheeks because I was an angel and had to be very pale. I had this itchy halo on my head and tons of slips. I led the angels across the stage and I had to bend my knees and slide my feet and pretend I was floating. I felt strange. I had silver wings on my back and I was carrying a plastic bush. When all the angels were in two rows we had to walk across the stage to switch places. Patricia MacBride, a famous dancer, was the Sugar Plum Fairy and she danced around us. I saw one angel trip her and I heard the Fairy say, “Oh my gosh!” But she kept on dancing just like you are supposed to do in a performance.

Finally we had to bow with everybody on the stage and instead of our trees we got instruments to hold. As he walked by us, Fritz would say all these weird things like “This is boring” or “I saw you already.” Sometimes David Richardson who was in charge of us would watch from the side of the stage and would open his mouth and point his finger to the right or to the left telling us to move. Mr. B. was usually there.
 

After the end of the performance I got three bunches of flowers with notes on them like “Congratulations on Opening Night.” I felt happy and proud of myself.