If I remember correctly, the last time I saw a performance of the Nutcracker, my sister was still studying ballet. Though Melanie hung up her toe shoes some 30 years ago, she’s still the person who comes to mind when I think of ballet. (OK, sometimes Mikhail Baryshnikov comes to mind, but that’s a different thing entirely.)
Occasionally, as I head home from work, I see groups of girls from the Pacific Northwest Ballet School waiting to catch a bus. Their hair is slicked into perfect, tight buns. In thin sweaters and rolled-down sweatpants over flesh-pink tights and leotards, they stand, toes unconsciously pointing, fingers curving gracefully. Sometimes, out of the corner of my eye, I think I see my sister among them.
I saw some of those young ballerinas tonight, but not at the bus stop. Rather, they were dancing on the main stage at McCaw Hall, in PNB’s production of the Nutcracker. Each December, students from the ballet school join PNB’s professional dancers to put on a uniquely beautiful version of the holiday classic.
Beautiful because, well, it’s ballet, and Tchaikovsky; unique because the PNB’s Nutcracker features magnificent sets and costumes designed by illustrator Maurice Sendak. Sendak’s lavish, cartoony sets and lush, elegant costumes for the PNB were later adapted into the illustrations for Sendak’s book version of the Nutcracker.
During intermission, Paul and I took a look at the Nutcracker shop in the lobby. I almost bought my sister a Christmas tree ornament: a pair of 4-inch-long toe shoes tied together with lengths of satin ribbon. As I held the little shoes up by their ribbon bow, I wondered whether her old toe shoes might still be hanging in her closet. And I wondered whether she still unconsciously points her toes while waiting in lines.
To open the Advent calendar window for Day 13, click here:
I forgot to take my camera to McCaw Hall, but a fellow Seattleite snapped a great shot of the Sendak-designed set. You can also watch the lovely Peacock dance from PNB’s film of the Nutcracker. This is the cover of Sendak’s gorgeously illustrated version of the Nutcracker.