You see snow onstage. Nutcracker dancers see dusty pieces of shredded newspaper, reeking of fireproof chemical treatment, that will end up in their mouths until they cough gray.
is a ballet about a little girl’s journey into a magical land of sweets, warring rats, and colossal Christmas trees, but what’s most fantastical is the snow. It comes down in the finale of Act I, during the famed “Waltz of the Flowers,” falling gently at first, a few glittering flakes at a time, then building into a magical blizzard so dense dancers fade into obscurity behind it.
From the plush seats of the theater, the Act I finale is breathtaking—all beauty and grace, the dancers light as snow. But I know, having moved on that stage, that they are taking imperceptible little breaths through their noses, and in their pointe shoes a new blister has started to bleed, and that when the curtain falls and they head backstage, rushing to change costumes for the next act, they’ll cough up gray. Yes, it’s the most wonderful time of the year.
Bonnie Boiter-Jolley, a principal at Columbia City Ballet in South Carolina, couldn’t list a role she hasn’t performed. “I’ve never been the Rat King,” she said finally. “I have been a rat, though.” San Francisco Ballet’s Benjamin Freemantle is similarly well-versed: “We could probably all fake it pretty well. Any part you put us in, we could make something of it.”dancers—literally.
Blisters and corns are a predictable feature of the season, so much so that none of the dancers bother complaining about them. “We’re in our pointe shoes for so many hours, so that’s something that we all know is coming,” said the NYCB’s Alexa Maxwell. Male ballet dancers don’t wear pointe shoes, but they sympathize: “Our hearts go out to the flowers and snow,” as Freemantle put it.
You also don’t get to touch holiday treats. Some companies, like Columbia City Ballet, still require weekly weigh-ins from their dancers, and
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