Sexy Coffee and Racist Tea: Weird and Troubling Nutcracker Productions

Once upon a time six years ago, there was a very tiny toy soldier bravely marching into battle under the direction of her Nutcracker General to fight off the Mouse hordes. 

Several promotions later, that child soldier has grown into an Officer, dancing her first role en pointe in our local university's production of The Nutcracker. But just between us, the Mice really have the more righteous cause. So don't tell the Nutcracker General, but his Officer will be spending half her time secretly as a Mouse, menacing that brat Clara and bravely fighting her sometimes-comrades, the soldiers. 

I think the Mice might have a real chance to win this year!

It's time, then, for my third-favorite holiday of the year: Nutcracker season! 

Here's a Fun Holiday Game For You: Find the Weirdest and Most Troubling Nutcracker Productions

If I was still working on a PhD (if only PhD programs could be twenty years long, because it took at least fifteen years before I thought of my first original research idea that would have made a good thesis, ahem. And now I get good thesis ideas on the daily!), I would 100% be writing my thesis on regional Nutcracker productions as cultural artifacts that reveal and complicate our society's understanding of gender, sexuality, and race, as well as the male gaze when directed at female-presenting adolescents. 

Particularly that last one, ahem. I thought our local university's production was a little heavy on the child predator grooming a future victim vibes, and then I watched literally any other Nutcracker ever choreographed. Most of the productions I've seen have been choreographed by men, and they seem to have a very hard time visualizing a relationship between a male and female, even one with a fifty-year age gap where the female is supposed to be, like, twelve, that's not somehow gross. 

Other Nutcracker cliches to look out for include how heteronormative and cisgender are the children's casting, costumes, props and choreography; is the "Arabian Coffee" dance meant to be "sexy" or not; and how racist does the "Chinese tea" dance present? Our local university's production is pretty racist; it was only a very few years ago that they stopped putting a Fu Manchu mustache on the male lead, recently enough that I still worry every year that it might show up again.

Here's an interesting mini-documentary about how Ballet West addressed racism in the tea dance a few years ago:

Joffrey Ballet now also does a dragon dance, and a nearby university's production invites a local martial arts school to do some sweet moves onstage during that number. 

Every November, then, in the lead-up to The Nutcracker, it's my personal mission to find the weirdest and/or most troubling productions. Partly, I just think it's interesting to see how different choreographers handle the exact same music and same basic plot. Partly, it's just me processing my sour grapes--like, sure, they make my kid dance in pants and ugly wigs every single year even when wearing that pretty party dress and having her hair in curls was her one dream and they 100% gave her height-related body dysmorphia for a while when she finally caught on that it was always the shortest girl who scored Clara, but hey, at least nobody's in blackface in OUR production! But partly, I also like to see how our various societal tropes are expressed in this one cultural commonality. You know, who's doing something different on purpose, and why? Who thought they were doing something different but it's just an even more overt expression of that same cliche? Who's tapped into a way to empower and include artists and audience, and who's actively fighting against equity and diversity?

Dutch National Ballet: The Nutcracker and the Mouse King

Many years ago during Nutcracker season, we found a Nutcracker production on YouTube that has, to date, the most bonkers plot twist imaginable: the Mice WIN the battle against the Nutcracker and take all of the child soldiers captive, including Clara's own brother, Fritz, who was commanding the toy soldier army. We were all, like, "Okay, that was weird," and moved onto the Snow Scene, after which Act 1 ends with Drosselmeyer leading Clara and the Nutcracker Prince into... his film projector, I think? There, for some reason, the Mouse King and his army appear again and this time the Nutcracker defeats him and now all the Divertissements dance while Clara and the Prince act cute and Drosselmeyer bops in and out occasionally like a matchmaking Gollum.

So we're just happily watching the Divertissements when Arabian begins with a guy cracking a whip, and then onto the stage stumble enslaved people wearing ragged clothing and chains. The male lead starts his dance, but then one of the enslaved men tries to escape and is dragged back by one leg and starts to dance this weirdly homoerotic S&M pas de deux with the Arabian lead and we all realize--OMG, that's FRITZ!!! Fritz has been sold into slavery to the Arabian dancer! He's got makeup bruises and his clothes are ripped and he's in manacles and now he's rolling around on the floor while the Arabian dancer thrusts over him and it is WILD. 

Every year since, we've tried to find this specific Nutcracker, but never ran across it again. But a couple of nights ago, in a completely hysterical fit of insomnia, I was all, "This is my mission. I will not rest until I have found this fever dream of a Nutcracker." I Googled various search terms involving Nutcracker, Fritz, and "abducted," "enslaved," and "kidnapped," etc. And finally, I cracked it! Welcome, Friends, to the Dutch National Ballet's production of The Nutcracker and the Mouse King, choreographed by Toer van Schayk and Wayne Eagling. That YouTube version we watched absolutely was a bootleg of a 2011 filmed and streaming version (if your state university library has a Medici.tv subscription like mine does, you can watch it there), but at least right now you can also watch the 2021 production here. 

Also notable about this production: there's real ice skating in the Prologue and Apotheosis, Fritz tries to spy on his sister while she's changing clothes, and they skip Mother Ginger entirely.

And a random fun fact: after Russia invaded Ukraine, the Bolshoi Ballet's prima ballerina denounced the war, fled Russia, and now dances with the Dutch National Ballet.

Mariinsky Ballet: The Nutcracker

This is a fun one to watch, even before it gets super weird at the end, because the Mariinsky Ballet in St. Petersburg is famous for holding the very first production of The Nutcracker in 1892. Fun fact: audiences HATED IT! They thought, in particular, that it was so stupid to have children dancing in a professional production. Especially funny considering that child dancers are now The Nutcracker's biggest draw. The Mariinsky must have learned its lesson, because even though there are a few children's roles in this production, even Act I Masha and Fritz are played by full-grown adults acting like children. I love when they age Masha up for Act II so that she can do some proper dancing, but otherwise, full-grown adults acting alongside children while pretending to be their same age is a little Adam Sandler for my tastes.

This is the production choreographed in 2001 by Mikhail Chemiakin. At least right now, there's a 2007 production of Mariinsky Ballet's The Nutcracker available on YouTube:

Its portrayal starts off very comic and kid-friendly, with lots of funny noses and giant props and some pratfalls in Act I, and a low-key Voldemort-looking Drosselmeyer who obviously seethes with jealousy every time Masha and the Nutcracker Prince make goo-goo eyes at each other. Drosselmeyer also seems to maybe be in some kind of charge of the mice, who don't look very mouse-like and I really hope they're not actually caricatures of Jewish people. 

To get to the actual BONKERS part of the production, though, you have to hang on until the absolute last seconds of the performance, when Drosselmeyer raises a curtain to reveal that many of the characters are actually the treats in his candy shop. Masha and the Nutcracker Prince, who'd just finished up a joyful and romantic dance right before the curtain closed, are now revealed as the candy toppers on a giant wedding cake.

And y'all, crawling all over the cake and actively eating it as the curtain finally closes ARE THE MICE. THEY ARE LITERALLY GOING TO EAT MASHA AND THE PRINCE. 

My guess is that Drosselmeyer got fed up and figured hell, if he can't have Masha, might as well feed her to the mice.

Also notable about this production: the Arabian female lead is dressed in a skin-tight snakesuit and accompanied by snake puppets, and the poor Nutcracker Prince has to keep his horrifying Nutcracker mask on for an ungodly long time. There's also a DVD of a different Mariinsky Ballet Nutcracker production, originally choreographed by Vasily Vainonen in 1934, that's more wholesome than weird. Syd and I saw this in the theatre with her ballet buddies one year, and it's adorable.

New/Adventures: Nutcracker!

So, were you thinking that it might actually be easier in the long run just to traumatize your children with a terrifying Nutcracker production as young as possible so that they don't ask for expensive ballet lessons? 

Well, have I got the Nutcracker for you! 

Instead of casting children, let's cast adults who make big, childish movements and huge facial expressions in an uncanny valley version of childhood.

Instead of setting the scene in a wealthy household hosting an opulent Christmas party for all their rich friends, let's have Act I take place in an orphanage with a co-ed dormitory full of miserable adult-children. The grown men acting like little boys will also wear nightshirts that expose their legs to the upper thigh.

Instead of giving the kids dolls and drums and a random nutcracker, let's give them creepy shit like a ventriloquist's dummy and a working pistol. Fritz will literally shoot an orphan with the pistol, and the dummy will come to terrifying life just before the orphans revolt and one of them saws the head off of the headmaster, who is dressed in leather and wields some kind of stick... a riding crop, maybe?

Welcome to New/Adventure's Nutcracker!, choreographed in 1992 by Michael Bourne. It's not for children! 

Again, we watched this production several years ago on YouTube, in what must have been an excellent year for Nutcracker bootlegs, but right this second it's also available via a bootleg on Vimeo. 

If you don't watch the production with your kids, it's got some interesting moments that make it pretty fun. I can't completely figure out if it's Clara's little orphan buddy or the ventriloquist dummy who eventually is reincarnated as the Prince, but regardless, he's reincarnated shirtless, and their pas de deux would be charming and low-key sexy if the full-grown adult playing Clara didn't have to keep making those weird little kid faces and gestures. The overture to Act II that's normally danced by very little children playing angels or trees is danced by adults with wings wearing pajamas. Maybe they're dead orphans? It's also fun seeing how much sexual innuendo and camp and just plain bizarreness they can work into all of the Divertissements. 

In the end, Clara wakes back up in her orphanage, but who's hiding in her bed? Why, it's that hunky Prince again! 

Also notable about this production: Clara gets to dance blissfully with a whole troop of shirtless dudes, and she looks like she's having a fabulous time. The Arabian and Chinese dances aren't at all racist. And the Russian dance is, I think, a gay football theme?

Okay, I thought that I was going to monologue about all of my weird Nutcracker finds all in one place, but I actually have to go put a certain Mouse's hair up in milkmaid braids and then change into my black clothes for backstage and then drive her to campus for her stage rehearsal and then go chaperone the Party Scene children during dress rehearsal while my Mouse fights a battle and then check all the Party Scene kids back out to their parents and then collect my hopefully victorious Mouse and then drive us home and then eat Pizza Rolls in bed while watching hockey and then fall asleep without washing my face, so let's talk about weird Nutcrackers again later, okay?

And if you write your PhD thesis on the subject, send me a copy!

Ballet Photo Inspiration for the Enthusiastic Amateur Photographer of Sometimes Surly Teenaged Ballerinas

 

Railroad bridges make for terrific photo ops!

Why drag just one teenager out and about for an elaborate photo shoot session when you can drag TWO teenagers?!?

SO many reason why not, right? OMG SO MANY REASONS. The bickering, in stereo. The complaining, in stereo. The only break I get from them sniping at each other is when they join forces to snipe at ME.

But think of the cute sister photos I can take! Sister photos with one in a graduation gown and one in her ballet togs! 

And if the one sister is already there in her ballet togs, why not just go ahead and take some ballet photos?

I've dragged Syd out and about before to take ballet photos. Sometimes we're both really happy with them, and sometimes we end up with Syd mad that I got her pointe shoes dirty and me frustrated that I couldn't really think of cute photos to take and the ones I did think of didn't turn out cute. 

It's tough to be an amateur mommy photographer with severa myopia and an uncertain aesthetic!

This time round, I'm taking a lesson from my Senior photos shot list and making a similar shot list of ballet photos. I don't have as many specific locations in mind as I do for Will's photos, so hopefully I can assemble a large enough bank of inspiration photos that wherever we end up, I can flip through them and come up with something I want to try.

Here are some of my favorite inspo photos from my Ballet Photos Pinboard:

Teen Senior Pictures image via Treasure Layne Photography

I love this idea of using a bridge railing as a ballet barre:

Ballet Inspired Ames Senior Pictures via Amelia Renee Photography

Lexi Senior 18 Plano Senior via Clara Bella Photography

A Sunrise Ballerina Session in DC via Abby Grace

North Park Ballet Photos image via Jenna Hidinger Photography

I also got some pose ideas by scrolling through photos I've taken of Syd's various class observations and recitals over the years. It both gives me good ideas for poses in general and for poses that it would be cute to have Syd redo for comparison to her baby self:

I'm especially excited to have Syd recreate this one. Look at that teeny-tiny dancer!

Ballet photos are extra fun because you can also play around with clothing. I'm pretty sure my kid likes her emo garb and black Converse a ton better than she likes her burgundy leotard and pink tights! So I think some of the poses and locations I've got in mind will look even better with street clothing.

Just pray for me that I don't get her pointe shoes dirty again! She has literally NOT forgiven me for the last time that happened, even though I swear I just thought that since they were already filthy from dancing AND dead a little gravel wouldn't matter...

Pointe Shoes and Twinkle Lights

 The other day I bribed my favorite ballerina into indulging me with a holiday photo shoot:

Syd badly needs a new pair of pointe shoes (something to add to the holiday to-do list!), and that is always my favorite time to commemorate how a well-used pair is meant to look.

A photo shoot with Gracie is generally all the inducement Syd needs to submit to her own set of photos. For each of the next images, imagine me in Photoshop painstakingly lassoing and filling in about a thousand cat hairs from her marley. 

Ah, well... the marley needed a wash anyway!

We then tried to get some photos of Jones, but turns out he's terrified of roll-up dance floors and twinkle lights.

So then Will and I tried to get some cute photos of Luna, and, well...

Back to pointe shoes and picking animal hair out in Photoshop, shall we?

We're not really a Christmas card or family holiday photo sort of people, so I think this will do for commemorating the season!

When You Don't Want to Spend Thirty Bucks: How to DIY a Dance Skirt

 This tutorial was originally posted on Crafting a Green World.

My kid's ballet program generally isn't too outrageous when it comes to recital costumes. I know of other programs in our town that require two or more elaborate, brand-new costumes per recital, generally along the lines of rainbow-colored flapper outfits, or leotards with butt ruffles, that you're never going to get your kid to wear again, because no kid *really* wants to be a flapper for Halloween. I will tell you another time about my thoughts on the privilege of wealth that lets someone assume that just because you're sending your kid to dance class, you can blow a bunch of money on an elaborate dance recital costume that your kid will wear once. 

 Anyway, my kid's program usually doesn't pull that kind of crap, but this year they required that for the recital, every child wear a white leotard and white dance skirt. Why the children can't simply wear the uniform leotards and dance skirts that they already own, I don't know, other than the assumption that none of us would mind shelling out another fifty bucks just so we can have an even harder time picking our kid out of the group on stage. 

 A white leotard that meets ballet program specifications is twenty-plus bucks. That's a fair price for the fabric and pattern and technique that goes into sewing such a leotard, especially if you pretend that the person who sewed it was paid a fair price for their work. 

A white dance skirt that meets the ballet program specifications is thirty-plus bucks. That's... ridiculous. The thing is a half-yard of chiffon, a yard of 1/4" bias tape, and a rolled hem.

 Fortunately, something that simple is also simple to make! 

 You will need: 

  half-yard of chiffon. That's enough to make a dance skirt for a long-legged ten-year-old. Size up to get more length. 

  1/4" double-fold bias tape. If you have cotton fabric that matches the color of your chiffon, you can also make your own bias tape to save even more money. 

 1. Make the pattern for your dance skirt. If you already own or can borrow a dance skirt, all you have to do is trace it, adding an extra inch to the bottom and sides for the rolled hem. If you don't have a skirt to copy, though, your job is barely harder--as you can see in the image above, the dance skirt is nothing more than a u-shaped half-circle of fabric, longer in the middle and gradually tapering to a little shorter at both sides, bilaterally symmetrical. The longest part of the skirt should be the length that you want, plus an inch for hemming; the width of the skirt should be 1.5 to 2 times your waist measurement. The bias tape should be long enough to wrap around you and tie comfortably in the back.  

  2. Copy your pattern onto the fabric and cut it out. 

 3. Sew the sides and bottom with a rolled hem. Here's how to sew a rolled hem without a rolled hem foot for your sewing machine. Considering the learning curve that a rolled hem foot requires, it's not any quicker to use one if you don't plan to use it often. 

  4. Center the bias tape with the center of the top raw edge of the skirt; encase the raw edge in bias tape. Here's how to sew double-fold bias tape--it's even easier than sewing the rolled hem! When you're finished, your kid's ballet skirt will look just like all the other kids' ballet skirts-- 

 --so be sure and sit close to the stage, so you can pick her out from all the other kids in white!

Return to Tulip Trestle

 

Four years ago, we first visited Tulip Trestle as part of our study of the physics of bridges. 

Recently, we went back.

It turns out that wandering around the base of a beam bridge is a pandemic-friendly way to hang out with friends we hadn't seen in person since early March. 

Is the weather chilly as hell? Then it's even better for germ-killingness!

I had further, more sinister goals in mind for this visit, as I carried Syd's precious pointe shoes in my coat pocket. Syd is highly reluctant to get them even dirtier and more frayed than they already are, which is a very fair point, but after eight months of dancing en pointe in our family room on our boring roll-up marley floor instead of the variety of stages and studios that she so much deserves, she's a little more willing to indulge her mother these days.

And, of course, there's the ever-present railroad track graffiti to keep one entertained...

And afterwards, if one hits up another couple of spots on the Southern Indiana Ice Cream Trail, the better to discover small local parks while one eats ice cream on a park bench while shivering (one park had a genuine tank AND an old-school super long metal slide of death!), you've got the perfect pandemic Sunday afternoon out of the house.

The cats barely knew what to do with themselves when we got back, they were so surprised to have had the house to themselves for five whole hours!

Dancing during a Pandemic: Ballet at Home, with 20 Free Online Ballet Class Resources to Make it More Fun

I know that we are all soldiering on and putting on our brave faces and thanking our lucky stars for every single piece of good fortune that we're fortunate enough to possess during this pandemic, but I just want to tell you that if your kid is legit grieving something from her pre-pandemic life, this is your safe space to complain about it right here.

Because we can all put on our brave faces and soldier through our own shit, but when your kid is suffering and you can't fix it, that is a hard load to bear, and it legitimately sucks. Fortunate as we are in all the ways that we are, watching your kid have to miss their favorite people and favorite activities out in the big, wide world is hard, and if you want to gripe about it, you can go ahead and gripe about it right here to me, because I'm hating it, too.

I'll even go first: I HATE how much my kid is missing ballet. She misses her friends, she misses her teachers, she misses the companionship of other dancers, she misses rehearsing for and performing in the spring recital (what a blow that cancellation was!), she misses the in-person instruction, she misses pointe class... essentially, she's grieving for every aspect of her favorite thing in life.

Online classes and dancing at home are poor substitutes.

And yet that's where we are, and that's what we've got, so that's what she's doing. 

Thankfully, we already had a DIY ballet barre set up at home. I think most of the kids at my kid's level in her classes who didn't already have one by the time the pandemic started do have one by now, because although something like a countertop or the back of a chair works if you're relatively stationery, it doesn't help much for moves that require you to travel--and you do a lot of that in pointe class!

If you want a non-DIY portable ballet barre, I know several kids who have this one and they all seem to like it:

Or, if you've got a space to wall-mount a ballet barre, I also know people who like this one:



We've also got large wall mirrors set up in the kid's ballet area, but interestingly, she often prefers to practice and take class away from the mirror, all the way on the opposite side of the room:

I had assumed that the mirror would be crucial for evaluating one's position or technique or whatever, but I've actually been hearing that other kids in her class are responding well to dancing without the wall of mirrors in their ballet studio. Such an unexpected takeaway, right?

The photo above was taken with the kid dancing on our bare laminate floor, which is pretty horrible even when it's not covered in dust and hair... not that I'd actually know for sure what the floor is like when it's not covered in dust and hair, but I've got a good imagination.

HOWEVER, it was even while I was taking those photos that I realized that if the kid really was going to be having to take pointe classes from home, and do all her practicing and dancing on pointe here, too, she could not continue to do it on this floor. It's slippery, and she looked unsteady.

I took her into my bedroom to see if dancing en pointe on the carpet would be any better, and she nearly rolled an ankle after about five seconds.

So then I bought this:

It's this exact piece of marley floor, and it's perfect for the kid and for our space. Even on sale for 40% off when I bought it (yay!), it was still quite spendy, but I've been told that we should be getting a partial refund for the kid's also quite spendy ballet tuition, and even if we weren't, the kid has to be able to continue her pointe training and she clearly cannot do so if she's in danger of hurting herself.

When the floor isn't in use, the kid rolls it up and stores it beneath the mirror. I SUPER want to buy her this storage bag, because somehow this marley floor manages to pick up and show off all the dust and fuzz and cat hair and dog hair and human hair even better than the laminate floor shining in the sunset does, but that's definitely not in the budget until that theoretical partial tuition refund is in my bank account.

So here is how the kid takes ballet class now:

Actually, I guess she CAN see herself in the mirror when she dances. Maybe across the room from it is better than being a nose-length away!

She doesn't love it--honestly, she HATES it--but she has discovered that with the right instructor, she does find it useful. There are times when it really, really sucks, though, and I hate seeing the kid's disappointment and frustration when, say, she can't hear the instructor's music, or maybe the music is way too loud but the instructor's voice is super quiet so she can't turn the volume down, or that one time when we couldn't get the audio to work at all and she had to do a whole class without being able to hear a thing--for some reason we have a LOT of audio problems over here!

I also really feel for the dance teachers who have had to learn what might be an entirely new technology to them, and a new method of instruction, and figure out their own music, and find a way to give good feedback to a bunch of students using different equipment on different floors with varying qualities of webcams.

Like, dancers are ALREADY well-versed in grit and perseverance. They really don't need this whole series of challenges just to teach them life lessons!

One good thing, I guess, about the quarantines across the country is that many ballet companies and institutions are generously providing free online classes and other enrichment. It's sometimes hard to figure out the level for these, or they're most often at a beginner's level or for young children, but it can be fun to try something new, and some of the classes on offer are very unusual!

These change all the time, but here are some current favorites:

1. Ballerinas by Night has free YouTube ballet classes, exercises, and tips. 
2. Ballet 24 has mostly YouTube workouts for dancers, but also stretches and some classes.
3. The Ballet Coach has YouTube classes for all levels from "little kids" to "grandma and grandpas," including some at the intermediate/advanced level. 
4. Berkeley Ballet Theater hosts several pay-what-you-can ballet classes through Facebook every week, and these are especially great because some of them are intermediate/advanced level.
5. Canada's National Ballet School has online ballet classes through intermediate level.
6. Charlotte Ballet is holding weekly classes on African dance and jazz!
7. Charm City Ballet has a live weekly barre class that's also available for viewing afterwards.
8. Cincinnati Ballet has a whole series of conditioning classes on Facebook Live, or you can dance along to their livestreamed company classes on YouTube. 
9. Cleveland Inner City Ballet has a free children's classes every week on Facebook Live. 
10. The Dutch National Ballet has several online classes on YouTube. Most are barre, but there are some on other topics. 
11. English National Ballet at Home classes on YouTube definitely aren't for beginners!
12. Front Range Classical Ballet Academy has Facebook videos for intermediate/advanced classes and conditioning.
13. Huntsville Ballet has tap, modern, and hip hop classes free on YouTube!
14. Kathryn Morgan has tons of classes and tutorials on YouTube, including pointe classes from beginner through advanced!
15. Lazy Dancer Tips has full ballet classes, but also strength training and workouts.
16. The New San Jose Ballet offers pay-what-you-can ballet classes through YouTube. There are all levels, including an adult ballet bootcamp that I might secretly try.
17. New York City Ballet has basic-level ballet classes for adults that don't feel basic because they're engaged with a theme--this week's is going to sneak some modern in via a Balanchine ballet!--and classes for young children.
18. Pro Ballet is in Russian on YouTube, so you sort of have to look at the thumbnail to see what the class is, but once it starts you can easily follow along.
19. The Rockettes teach a new segment of one of their routines on Instagram every week, but you can still see them after if you don't catch them live. I'm fascinated that they do most of this in heels! 
20. Sarah Arnold has YouTube videos with mostly warm-ups and exercises for improving specific skills, like turnout. 

All those classes are enough to keep any dancer engaged and in condition, if you remember that they don't provide any instructor feedback and so aren't a real substitute for a live class.

I particularly hate that this pandemic happened so early in the kid's pointe training, when she really needs the hands-on instruction and feedback to help her develop good habits and good form, but honestly, there's no great time in a dancer's training... or in anyone else's, either... for a pandemic to suddenly quarantine everyone away from their peers and teachers. We're just... soldiering on, game faces in place, trying not to focus on how much it all sucks.

If you've got a dancer who's training at home, too, tell me YOUR favorite tips and tricks and equipment. Maybe there's something new that I haven't thought to throw my money at yet!

P.S. Want to know what else we're doing during quarantine, like the science experiments and the art activities and the weird craft projects and the random Jane Austen tea parties? Check out my Craft Knife Facebook page!

It's Possible to Have an Entire Nutcracker-Themed Homeschool Semester (Ask Me How I Know This...)

Because #nutcrackerlife, amiright?

Seriously, all fall and into the winter, when the kid wasn't doing this--

--she was thinking about it.

How do you get a homeschooling kid to think about something that's not her right-this-minute passion?

Friends, you don't. Instead you just... lean into it. That's the phrase we're using these days for just giving into what you've gotta do instead of griping about it, right?

Fortunately, there are lots of ways to sneakily sneak real-world study skills, handwork, knowledge-building, and practical life activities into a kid's Nutcracker obsession, whether she's a tiny angel bringing light back into the world, a tin soldier hardened from a lifetime of fighting in the mouse wars, a deadly assassin/Baroque-costumed child of the Creature Known Only as Mother Ginger, or a young party guest/spy attending a Christmas party and low-key planning to steal a certain magical nutcracker that turns into a real person and controls an army of ensorceled children and fights giant mice for you.

First step: read the book:



It's plenty weird, and there's a LOT to talk about. There's a ton of plot that's completely different from any staging of the ballet that you've ever seen, so you can use it as a reference to compare to all of the further picture book and theatrical productions that you feel like watching.

Because you should read and watch as many different versions of the Nutcracker as your kid can stand! Syd has gotten progressively more interested in this as she's gotten older, and this year I swear we watched the first act and at least the overture and Mother Ginger scenes from the second act in every Nutcracker ballet available on YouTube--even the desperately amateur productions, bless their hearts. There are a lot of interesting aspects of how different productions are choreographed and staged, and once you've seen a few so that you've got a baseline of a typical Nutcracker production, the ones that have made atypical choices are really fun to find! Did you know that the Bolshoi Ballet casts an actual kid as the Nutcracker doll? There's also a production somewhere in which the mouse soldiers are small children, and some of them get killed during the battle, fall over dead onto their backs on stage, and are then dragged off stage by their fellow mice! It's BONKERS!!!

There's also a production in which the soldiers, including Fritz, LOSE THE BATTLE and are carted off stage in an actual cage. Later during the second act, when the Arabian dance begins, the dancing couple come on stage dragging Fritz by a chain that's attached to a collar around his neck! Because apparently the child soldiers who were captured were SOLD INTO SLAVERY?!?!?!?!?

See? Fascinating stuff!

I also really like these other retellings of the Nutcracker story or the Nutcracker ballet:



Most of those are picture books with beautiful art, and wonderful inspiration to draw your own  magical Nutcracker scenes--or perhaps create your own picture book/stop-motion film/shoebox diorama/puppet show/live reenactment?

There are also a ton of backstage, behind-the-scenes resources that can fascinate kids. Syd's absolute favorite ballet book is this one--



--about a kid cast as Clara in the NYC production of The Nutcracker. If your kid actually dances ballet, though, you do NOT want to feed her only on books about the kids who are cast as the lead roles, because only a couple of kids a year get those roles and it's already going to suck bad enough when it's not your kid. Therefore, MY favorite backstage Nutcracker book is this one:



It's about a kid who gets the lousiest part in the whole production, feels lousy about it forever, and then doubles-down into it and learns to find its magic. It's a far more realistic version of what it's like to dance in the Nutcracker, with a healthy, wholesome message.

That being said, it is really fun to watch backstage documentaries. Most do follow the kids cast as Clara, but documentaries often give a more well-rounded picture of the production, so they're not as focused on how great it is to get the great roles. Syd and I watch all of the Royal Ballet videos:



Boston has some crazy sets, so this one is fun!



Here's a video all about the Mouse King, who should obviously be everyone's favorite character!



We also liked this series focused on Nutcracker auditions:



It's related to a bunch of other audition and ballet school and rehearsal videos that Syd also likes. There are a lot of interesting Russian ballet behind-the-scenes videos!

So you've got the story to study, you've got the dance to study... and you've got the music! If you think that the Nutcracker is not playing constantly in our house from October through December, then you... well, you are wrong, because it is playing constantly in our house from October through December. Honestly, it's playing for a good portion of August and September, too, if you count audition prep.

Syd sometimes lets me jazz it up by playing Duke Ellington's version, instead:



Kid-friendly composer studies can actually be challenging to find, because most children's studies don't include classical music. Charlotte Mason DOES, fortunately, so there are some resources around. Here's a good template for a composer study, complete with lots of free handouts, that includes Tchaikovsky.

This video is also interesting, because it takes one song and shows you the main instrument playing at each moment:



This CD doesn't tell you a ton ABOUT Tchaikovsky, but it includes a lot of his music and it's really fun!



So now your kid has studied the story, the dance, the music... but what's the weirdest part of the Nutcracker?

The NUTCRACKER!!!

Seriously, it's a ballet about a NUTCRACKER. My kid doesn't even like nuts, and yet she owns something like sixteen nutcrackers by now.

Mind you, none of them are functional, but there you go.

We like this How It's Made video about the traditional nutcracker form:



And this is an interesting video on the history of the nutcracker and how it all got wrapped up in Christmas, anyway:



And, of course, you know that this would not be a kid-friendly unit in MY homeschool if it did not include a very impractical video of something over-the-top. We are NOT going to be building this giant nutcracker that can crack coconuts for us:



Instead, here are some nutcracker crafts that you CAN build while watching ballet videos or listening to Tchaikovsky!

• stenciled banner. I like the idea of a nutcracker banner as holiday decor, and I'm thinking that felt (which I have a ton of) would be just as nice of a penant material as the burlap that the tutorial calls for. You can find lots of nutcracker-related stencils online (I think one that featured a timeline of Syd's participation would be really cute!), but a good art project would be teaching the kids how to make stencils and then getting them to freehand some for this banner.
• real nutcracker. We do not have the equipment for this, but if I can ever access it, this is going to be one of the first projects that the kids and I make together!
• popsicle stick nutcracker. If you don't have the miniature popsicle sticks that this project calls for, you can cut the larger ones to size. 
• nutcracker cube critter. These little dudes remind me of the LEGO brickheads, but you cut and assemble them from cardstock. 
• clay nutcracker and angel. This is a very accessible tutorial, but if you're an able crafter and want to use polymer clay, you can search for some very intricate and elaborate tutorials on YouTube. Or just wing it!
• clothespin soldiers. You can reenact the entire battle scene!
• guided drawing with nutcrackers. I love this art activity! You can make it as simple or as in-depth as suits you.

If you're attending the ballet, I like a lot of the activities from this educator's guide to the Nutcracker. This one, though, has activities that you can print-out--maybe you can use it to keep a kid entertained before the show starts?

It's strange to think of what a small part of Syd's entire life these childhood Nutcracker seasons will be, considering what a large part of her life they take up right now. Ballet isn't really one of my own big interests, but I never regret the time that it takes, or how deeply I have to dive, myself, to help a kid dive deeper into her passions.

Anyway, now that Nutcracker is over for a few months, it's time for Syd to immerse herself into her designs for our town's big Trashion/Refashion Show. No regrets on this project, either, but just between us, I like Nutcracker more than I like fashion design!

P.S. If you like study resources and weird videos of people making giant nutcrackers and cracking coconuts with them, you'd like my Craft Knife Facebook page!