Nutcracker Performance

The nutcracker performances have been very stressful, but as always they are an experience.
Before each performance there is a one hour long class that is used for warm up, and then one hour for hair, make-up and costumes and then the actual performance. What makes it stressful is juggling school and ballet at the same time. Still, the performance is actually relaxing.
Truth is, right before coming on stage there is one full hour in which I have to pain the slippers so they don’t look dirty, I have to put make up on, make my hair, and get the costume I should wear for that day (each day it’s a different role). Though there is a lot of running around involved, getting to be on stage is always rewarding. When we get the first call, fifteen minutes before the show, there’s a change in atmosphere. Everything becomes more urgent. Sometimes it has to do with a piece of costume that is missing or has ripped; sometimes an actor isn’t ready to go on stage just yet. Still all this little mistakes have a way of resolving themselves right on the third call.
One of the best parts about it is that while you’re on stage, nobody can say a word about anything, no matter if you mess up, everything is silent and you get to dance without criticism. Also, the days I get to play lead role, and I have to express various different emotions each time, I it is also a way of letting everything out. It’s my own interpretation of the events, so when I act as mad, I put my own personality into it, same when I act as scared, or sad. The mixture of the acting and the dancing is always something relaxing even though I know that there are people out there judging every step I take, whether they are teachers, or friends. Part of submerging into a role and becoming who you want to interpret, is realizing that while you’re playing the part of someone, you’re living their life. In Clara for example, I tend to forget about the audience, and while the walls are disappearing, and I’m left with nothing, I forget about the fact that there’s people watching me at the moment.
Also, part of the fun of performing, is that nobody knows what is really going to happened once you step on stage. We can practice all we want but in the end there is always that component of luck. As a dancer, if I mess up on stage I do blame myself for it, yet we all know that it can happen anytime to anyone. For example, little things like the elastic holding up my hair the day I was playing Clara broke in middle of the performance, and since it’s a very simple hair style for this particular role, everything came down. I had to dance with all the hair in my face. Learning how to improvise when things like this happened is actually very fun, and it has a lot to do with the attitude of the performer. There are times when somebody falls on stage and though some performers laugh and go on, others get upset and they are not afraid of showing it to the public. What makes ballet an art instead of a sport, is that the public doesn’t know what’s really going on. They don’t know which actor was crying seconds before the music started, or which actor is completely improvising as they go. It’s fun for everyone on stage to almost laugh at the public because though they have no idea what’s really going on, everybody performing knows what wasn’t supposed to happen. Though I love watching plays, it’s ten times better to be part of the play.
I still have twelve performances left and I’m already feeling the physical pain. Still I love the feeling of simply being at the theater and knowing the show is about to begin.