A baby mouse and an angel

Our dedication in the program for Juneau Dance Theatre's production of The Nutcracker tells the story of how the girls got to the auditions for their parts in this year's holiday ballet performance.  After watching The Nutcracker last year, both girls left saying "I want to be in The Nutcracker.  Mom, Dad, can we do it?"  And we gave them the "well, we'll see..." answer,  thinking that their enthusiasm would all but disappear after a few weeks.  But it didn't, and they kept asking.  It meant switching from their ballet classes at the local gym to Juneau Dance Theatre, a true ballet school, forgoing playing indoor soccer, rehearsals on Saturdays and Sundays in addition to their regular classes and then of course, getting up on stage in front of all those people. But they did it.  And loved it.

And guest blogging, here are some reactions straight from our baby mouse:

It's not that scary.
In some parts, you can't really see the audience.
No bad costume, no bad part.
Look for her to return to the stage next year.

This little contingent of mice met each other preschool and their paths joined back together for this production.  So fun to see their friendships pick up right where they left off.

Oh the multitude of angels!

Here's what our angel had to say about the experience:

It was a little hard to keep my smile that long, but I made it!
Costumes were comfortable.
The Sugar Plum Fairy was nice.
And, look for her return to the stage next year.

Here the high school age company dancers give a little good luck gift to the angels.  So sweet.  I'm not sure sure if they know how much the younger girls just adore them, particularly the ones that assist with their classes.

The 90-person cast! were all students (parents of students) of Juneau Dance Theatre except for The Sugar Plum Fairy and her Cavalier, who were professional dancers from the Miami Ballet Company.  The Sugar Plum Fairy, in particular, was so kind with all the young dancers, willingly signing autographs and just chatting with the girls.  This picture showed up on the webpage for Juneau Dance Theater and I recognized the bun; she had told me how she ripped off a scrap of paper from her notebook to get the Sugar Plum's autograph.

So proud of these girls!