Vermont Ballet Theatre’s production of The Nutcracker

One of my great pleasures of the last couple of months has been watching my eight-year-old daughter participate in the Vermont Ballet Theater‘s production of The Nutcracker. This year she’s playing the part of an Angel. It’s been a long process of rehearsals which culminates in two performances in at the Dibden Center for the Arts at Johnson State College on Dec. 8 and three shows at the gorgeous, historic Flynn Theater in Burlington this coming weekend. (Here’s a link for tickets if you’re interested.)

Although I helped out backstage at last year’s performances, I’ve been watching the whole process a lot more closely this year. In fact, I’m actually part of this season’s production.

I’m one of the “party parents” attending the Christmas party in the first act. My role involves a bit of dancing, but it’s mainly acting and sees me standing around chatting with other guests and wrangling the three rather unruly sons I have with me on stage. So, for the last six weeks or so I’ve not only been ferrying my daughter to and from rehearsals in Essex but I’ve been attending my own rehearsals as well. This is not always an easy thing to do at one of the busiest times of year for parents ad professors. Nevertheless, it’s been an enormous pleasure to watch my daughter participate in this and to watch such a talented group of children and young adults pull off such a huge endeavour under the guidance of the highly dedicated and gifted adults who teach at the Vermont Ballet Theater School.

For me, this experience is also a pretty serious flashback to the days of my youth. As a kid, I took ballet for many years, and pursued that pretty seriously until I was 17. Out with an injury for a while, I turned my attention to one of my other passions, music. Discovering that playing in a band was less painful, less time consuming (I was dancing about 15 hours a week in the Alberta Ballet School’s Professional Program at that point) and, for me, more creatively fulfilling, I quit ballet for good. Whether you’re a dancer, an athlete, or a musician, if you’ve ever performed at an elite level at something about which you are completely passionate, I don’t think you can ever fully leave that behind with no regrets or what ifs. That said, I don’t think I’ve ever imagined at any point over the last couple of decades that I would once again be on stage in this capacity–if anything, my recent dreams have been of playing in a band again (post-tenure, if any of my colleagues or family are reading this!). 27 years ago (!!!) I played a party child in the Nutcracker, the first production created by the late Brydon Paige for the now internationally renowned Alberta Ballet Company. To be a “Party Parent” nearly three decades later in a such a fine production of the Nutcracker has been a lot of fun.

I’m happy to report, though, that my greatest joy in this experience, that far, far outweigh any nostalgia for days long gone by has been watching my daughter not only being thrilled at her chance to dance on the Flynn stage but to witness with wide-eyed awe the passion and dedication of all the older dancers as they work tirelessly preparing for the performance. Quite honestly, I never anticipated that this would be one of the fantastic opportunities she would have here in Vermont. Whether she goes any further than this in ballet or not, this is a valuable example as to what one can achieve when one combines desire and lots of hard work. That on its own is a pretty fine Christmas gift for all of the children (and parents) involved.

At last weekend’s performance in Johnson, Eva Sollberger was there filming an episode for her great videoblog (or vlog) “Stuck in Vermont.” She interviewed a lot of the kids and, if you watch very, very closely you’ll see both my daughter and me (hint: I’m walking behind the Nutcracker as Ms. Sollberger is talking to him). Ms. Sollberger captures remarkably well the spirit and devotion that has gone into this production from every person involved.