Christmas Eve/Sarajevo 12/24
02 December 2005 - 12:44 pm
Well, it�s that time of the year again, and I don�t mean Christmas. It is Nutcracker time. That time of year where a black hole opens up and the family gets all consumed by this event that takes everyone�s time, patience, and sanity. Dancer will have to be at the studio every day for the next few weeks to go over what she is dancing (got one of the coveted parts she has been wanting for a while � Russian). But that is only one of 11 other parts she is dancing for the 11 performances. She will come home tired, but not want to go to bed, as she will be all wound up about her parts. Then her getting up in the morning (not that this is anything new) is problematic and takes an earthquake (or a good threat like �Too tired for school, then too tired to go to ballet tonight��) to get her out of bed and moving.
All this is only a prelude to reaching the Event Horizon. The weekend before the performances start you begin to hope you are one of the lucky ones that get to miss much of the mayhem. Imagine all the kids in the performance and I mean ALL the kids, down in the studio, with the parents down there watching (and waiting). It gets hard to move at times, let alone breathe. Acts are gone through many times with all the kids who are dancing the parts, with the younger kids following behind the older ones and at times you wonder why there are not as many collisions as there are. And you start to see the tempers and nerves growing shorter. Teachers, parents, and kids alike.
By the time Monday and Tuesday before opening night is here, you are totally sucked into the Event, as there is no turning back. The dress rehearsal has started. It starts around 7pm and is suppose to run to 10:30pm, but can go to 11pm or later. You have the littlest ones there, not dancing, but playing the parts of dolls, bears, or such � basically presents under the tree. These poor kids are so tired by the time their part is done, they are asleep before they are out the door most of the time. Next are the younger elementary school kids, who also hit the wall at some point, though the crash is not as dramatic. Next is the tweens, late elementary/beginning middle school kids. They are running on the adrenalin/excitement of their rolls, not wanting to mess up. Last are the older kids/teens. Usually they (and the parents) have gone through this for the past many years and reached the advanced level, dancing the premier parts. Many have handled it well, while others have not. But all have given a great performance and worked hard to do so. The time waiting for the kids to do their parts is spent doing homework (hopefully) or running around bouncing off the walls.
Then the performances start.
Opening night everyone is as tight as an over wound spring, only to be released by Darwood�s reading of the opening monolog, as everything, as always, fall into place. All the chaos from the past few weeks is forgotten and everything is down hill from there. Yes, there are little mishaps and at times some of the girls don�t do as good as they would have liked, but for their level and experience, it is exceptional.
Then after 10 or so performances it all ends and you wonder where the time went to and Christmas is only a little over a week away.
However, watching Dancer, EM, and the other girl (and boys) perform, it is not time that was lost or sucked away, but will always be time standing still in my memories.
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