The nutcracker

I took the girls to see the nutcracker today.

Simply put: it was the most beautiful thing I have ever seen.

Other than things in nature and the birth of my children, of course.

How could such a simple story inspire such beautiful music? How can anyone come up with such a melody, especially when the nutcracker prince is dancing with the sugar plum fairy--it is just beauty to hear. And then the dancing--that some one today can think of steps to go with music that was written 150 years ago, and to let it be that everything on the stage is so lovely. You have to see it from up high to get the full effect of it all. How the skirts billow out, the pattern the dancers make with their bodies, the colors, the costumes. The athleticism. The legs of the dancers. How can they leap without making a sound? They spin and spin and spin, the audience was clapping during their performances, especially when the men were dancing because it was so amazing.

I was 40 years old when I saw it, but my daughters were 4 and 6. I am not sure if they can possibly understand how pretty it was. To them, perhaps this is just how it is. Nutcracker. Done. Maybe it is better to be 40 to see such beauty for the first time. To wonder, what else is out there? What beauty awaits?

Perhaps it is not sophisticated. People probably regard Tchaikovsky as smaltzy or corny. To those people, I say -- I am sorry. I am sorry that you are so cynical that in your quest to be unique or cool or avant garde you fail to appreciate something that is truly beautiful.

I am sorry that hyphen thinks he hates ballet, and did not go. He missed Annabelle's running commentary:

"Where is Clara, why is fritz so annoying, I hope Tallulah isn't scared of the mice. Is the mouse king dead? Do the boys only wear tights? That isn't very modest. I think those soldiers came out of a hole in the state that Clara's bed was covering. There is a rope that moves the sled, I saw it. Do you see those white spots on the stage? That is so they know where to stand. It is neat how the curtain is kind of clear...." and so on.

I thought Tallulah was asleep. She yawned real big right when they turned out the lights. But when I glanced over at her she was staring intently with a somber look on her face. Concentrating. She wasn't on the edge of her seat, because she wasn't heavy enough to keep it down, so she was kind of folded in half, staring quietly, and she remained that way for the entire performance.

I understood each of their reactions. One was stimulated, one was awestruck.

I was both.