Nutcracker 2012

The last couple of weeks have been extremely busy in the McIntire household.  Cortlynn has been practicing for the Nutcracker production for months and the last two weeks she has had practices 6 days a week.  I don't know how she does it; I'm exhausted and I only drive a few nights since I carpool with another mom.  Her first performance was last Friday night.  She than had a matinee performance on Saturday with another evening performance that night.  On Monday she performed for all the 5th graders in the district.  This Saturday will be the final 2 performances and than we will have a break for about 2 weeks.

 

She is such a performer and I am so proud of her.  I can't believe just a short 6 years ago she was the baby mouse, now she is in pointe shoes.  Cortlynn is obsessed with the Nutcracker and will watch all the different version they have on TV during the holidays.  The other night we watched one of the Russian versions and a lot of the choreography was familiar.  She was shocked that they were doing the same dances that our studio does.  I explained to her that they are doing a lot of the same movements but they are adults in a professional company---you guys are school age kids.  The production they put on here in Pocatello is absolutely beautiful!  There is a cannon that shoots, "magic", it snows, and the talent amazes me and brings me to tears almost every time I see it. 

 

This year I volunteered to help in the dressing rooms: Friday night I helped with the little 5 and 6 year olds.  WOW----I often sit there and wonder why did I volunteer???  They are crazy little kids.  On Saturday I helped with Cortlynn's age group.  They aren't as crazy but it was still a lot of work.  Since they are an older group-their dressing room is under the stage area and I could go backstage and watch some of the performances.  That sure opened my eyes to the fact backstage is no bigger than a sardine can.  Several times throughout the performance, dancers dance off one side of the stage and come in on the other side:  No big deal, right??!  Wrong---they have to either run down a set of narrow stairs-across the dressing rooms in the basement, and back up another set of narrow stairs-or they have to go out a door, run thru the lobby, and enter the other door on the other side.  Those poor dancers are sweating and breathless from just running back and forth let alone dancing. 

 

I also witnessed how tough dancers are.  They aren't little petite girls in tights and a tutu---Nope-they are tough women who deal with a ton of pain with a smile.  One of the girls a year older than Cortlynn ripped her toe nail off last week and can barely walk--but she wraps it with a ton of tape and padding and dances on her toes.  Another girl on Saturday began dancing her solo as the Sugar Plum Fairy and she tripped on a piece of tape.  She actually tore a ligament in her foot/ankle.  She continued to dance thru the pain until her number was done.  She than went off stage-still smiling and had to be packed to the car and taken to the hospital.  Devin was shocked that she was able to continue dancing with that type of injury.  She was so good that no one had a clue: she actually  took off her costume gave it to another girl, and that girl finished the performance---no one figured out it was someone different.



Cortlynn as a party girl

She is also a Gingersnap in the Land of Sweets

She HATES this photo, so I just have to post it on the blog.  Teeheehee

 These photos I tried to take during her dress rehearsal.

 

Beth and Sergiu:  The Artistic Directors of the studio: they are extremely talented

 Cortlynn also had a Christmas choir concert at school and had a duet with one of her friends.  She looked so nervous but did a really nice job.

 

 

 I'm sure you have heard of the Elf on the Shelf--well, we don't do that; we have a reindeer named Tinsel come to our house.  He hides every night, keeps an eye on the kids, leaves little gifts, and than goes back to the North Pole with Santa on Christmas Eve.  Tristan LOVES Tinsel.

The second 6 weeks attendance has been completed so I had to update the bulletin board.  This is what it looks like.  Yes---those are all hand made (by me) snowflakes.