I grew up watching the annual TV runs of the ballet and re-reading the book version (multiple times) every December even after I knew the storyline by heart. I even had a figurine of the Nutcracker Prince; he lived on my fireplace until Christmas Eve, standing guard in my bedroom as I drifted off to sleep in the hopes that he’d come alive by some stroke of midnight magic and whisk me away.
I was a practical child, but this was the one fairy tale I believed in.
My girlfriend suggested we see the Pennsylvania Ballet’s reproduction of The Nutcracker a few weekends ago. It had been years — over a decade, actually — since I last saw this show at Lincoln Center. I was eight then, elated that my parents surprised me with tickets after being cast as an angel in my dance school’s production.
Fourteen years later, a foot taller, and a little more jaded, I sat at the steepest point of the ampitheather.
It was every bit as magical as I remembered.
. . .
The Pennsylvania Ballet’s “The Nutcracker” runs until December 31, 2015. Get your tickets here.
xx
a bit coquettish 