I grew up taking ballet lessons from the age of two until I was around thirteen. Though my desire to be a dancer was not in the cards, the creative streak that dancing evoked certainly has remained. And throughout my adult life three ballets have remained on my bucket list: Giselle, La Sylphide, and Swan Lake (with Coppelia as a close fourth). My darling husband had always dreamed of taking me to them all before he passed away this fall. At some point I do plan on fulfilling both of our dream.
Now, though he couldn’t meet those bucket list items, something he did do every year was to take me to the ballet at Christmas time. We always went to the Nutcracker wherever we were living. He and I both loved it (yes, I’m really not kidding). It was a joy to see the many different variations wherever we lived. I think the Bayou version was by far the most unique. And every year we would debate which childhood version was the most accurate – Salt Lake City or St. Louis, with their growing Christmas trees.
It was our tradition. Our holiday date night. Though, we dreamed of the day we could bring the little giants along and initiate them.
Now, it is 2020, which means that live performances of ballets, plays, musicals, orchestras, concerts, and everything else have been cancelled for this December. And I know we are all quite sad about that. But I guess my taking a moment to reminisce on my blog today is to encourage you to not miss any chance with your family and friends, even this year. If you can’t go live, then find a company that is streaming your favorite holiday tradition. It may not be the same, but it is important to keep those things alive any way we can until we can all be together again.
As for me and my family, we are going to be initiating the boys a little bit early (they’re three) when we watch the Pittsburgh Ballet’s version of the Nutcracker livestream in a couple of weeks.
Even Before 