The Nutcracker is the single most famous ballet in this day and age. It is a classic tale that has been associated with Christmas almost since the beginning. Every single ballet company does some version of The Nutcracker; it’s practically against the law to not do it.

That being said, most dancers have a very complicated relationship with the ballet. No one I know truly hates doing Nutcracker, but no one really enjoys it either. The company’s like or dislike for it changes throughout the year, as well. Typically, we start getting excited for it around August or September when we first start. Then, around the middle of October, we all start getting really sick of it all. This feeling usually intensifies over the next few weeks (especially when all the Christmas commercials with Nutcracker music start playing) until about two weeks before the show, when we all suddenly become excited again.

Right now, we’re going through the worst of the slogging period. It’s really hard to get motivated to really do the best we can do simply because it’s starting to get really annoying. Our director has been noticing this, if his cries of “This is supposed to be happy!” are anything to go by. However, the technical parts of rehearsal are starting to go really well and the show is getting better and better by the day, so I believe we will be able to really pick it up in the enthusiasm in the near future.