Nutcracker close up and personal

Every Christmas season my sister and her husband's ballet company perform the Nutcracker all over the state, starting the weekend before Thanksgiving way, way up north in Maine. Robinson Ballet has been doing this for at least 25+ years. Long enough for their son, Ian,( see my archives for the brag on Ian) to grow up and go from one of the little children in the opening scenes, to Fritz, the naughty brother who breaks the Nutcracker, to dancing the Cavalier to his mother's Sugar Plum Fairy, and this year coming home from NYC (Paris actually) to dance with a fellow professional dancer from NYC. Victoria. Beautiful and graceful, long neck, long legs. Youth. By the time we got backstage, they had already changed out of their costumes, but this is what Victoria wore:



They hang them upside down to keep them fluffy.

Ian is like a kid magnet. He's one of those kids that gets right down on the floor with the kids and let's them climb all over him. So, of course they LOVE him and no mattter where they are, start the climb...even in a crowded backstage aisle.



We attended the afternoon matinee and since they had time before the next performance that evening, we hung out at the student union at UMO. The little ones were more than accomodating with well deserved massages for the dancers:



Ella and Maureen



Charlie and the Sugar Plum Fairy. He was a little shy of her at first but then got right into his duties! I could go on about how the kids were so excited to see Ian actually dance and JUMP and SPIN (how come he's doing that?) or how anxious they were for the end to come, but I won't. It's a great holiday tradition, one I hope everyone enjoys with a little kid sometime.

My sister, maureen and her husband Keith and Ian...maureen is turning 50 next week, and when you see her onstage she still looks like a teenager. I told her I was very happy there was finally a sister with a 5 as the first age number. It's been a lonely 6 years.



Family Portrait