My favorite step is either pas de chat or grand pas de chat developé (aka Italian pas de chat). In ballet 2, where pas de chat often makes an appearance in the class’s dance, it is thought of as a palindrome: plié, passé, passé, plié. With the two passés, you jump up. I feel like I’m flying when I do a pas de chat. Everything feels right because of the symmetry of the body’s movement.

An Italian pas de chat is just like a regular pas de chat, except the first leg up does a developé as the second leg is coming to a passé position. Sometimes, that first leg does a battement up instead of a developé, often changing the height and angle of the jump. I like doing the developé ones better because I like feeling so powerful.  Also I feel as though I am soaring through the air, which is always quite a nice feeling.

-Peyton

My name is Peyton and I will be posting for the next two weeks. I am a full company member and I have been dancing for five years, all with Conservatory of Dance. I enjoy ballet and modern classes, and I demonstrate for beginning jazz classes. I also volunteer at the Center for the Homeless with Miss Lydia. My favorite dance memory is performing the Nutcracker every year because I get to share the memories with my friends who are more like a family. The most memorable and unchanging part of Nutcracker is our nose-less Nutcracker doll named Timothy.

What Nutcracker means to you?

Of course anyone can watch the Modern Nutcracker and see a performance - they can see the artistry, the beauty, the meaning. Yet there is something in this particular performance that truly sets the Modern Nutcracker apart from any other show, and this is the spirit of the performers. Within the cast of the Nutcracker, you will find a group of devoted individuals that don’t view the Nutcracker as a show, but as an entire season, as a feeling, an experience. When the cast steps into the roles of Klara, or Sugar Plum, or just a person on the street those emotions and those feelings absorb the dancer and there is no experience that can equal it. The Modern Nutcracker is feeling the pain of the homeless, knowing the hate of the public, yet still believing in this magical hope where a little girl can be transported from a dismal cardboard box on the side of the street to a warm and inviting wonderland where the love of a mother and father is freely given. The Modern Nutcracker is more than a Christmas party, or girls in frilly dresses, it is our call to love our neighbors and to extend the welcoming hand of friendship to even those we cannot fully understand because “in the end, only kindness matters”.  

Hailey

Ever since we first performed the 'Contemporary Nutcracker' in 2008 the story of the homeless, unloved, helpless Klara touched my heart. We perform the Nutcracker when the holiday season is started and everybody is so busy with shopping and spending money. We need to remember the real spirit of Christmas Season: taking care of each other and seeing how important it is to have family and friends. Life means more than being popular and having the fanciest newest things. Let's think about friendship, kindness and more sensibility for the needs of everybody around us. This year I have been blessed with the honor of living the life of Klara by dancing her role in the Nutcracker. I'm practicing now already a couple of weeks and slowly combining my dancing personality with her emotional and magical changes in her life and surroundings. In this way, I am becoming Klara so I can best portray her and really make the audience believe that I am truly her living through the hardships and confusions of her homeless life, followed by spreading the powerful message everyone learns and understands in the end. We can change the world around us with little doings: a smile, a helping hand and more kindness. This year, I have been inspired to help out children living in the Center for the Homeless in a special way. My dancer friend Morgan and I are going to assist in teaching some of the children ballet and other forms of dance. We are also planning on teaching the kids a dance from the Nutcracker that they can perform with us when we come to the Center with the whole Company and perform excerpts of the production. My life is forever changed and I am thankful that I know I can make the lives of people better while doing what I love to do most, DANCE!


Julia

My first year dancing in the Nutcracker was the year I was playing a mouse.  I remember how much I enjoyed the lights shining on me and the feeling of  being onstage.  At that moment I was most mesmerized by the character of Klara.  I knew then that I wanted to play that role.  I wanted to see what it was like to have such an amazing lead role.  That is exactly what happened.

When I found out I was going to be playing the role of Klara, I couldn’t even describe how I was feeling; this was two years ago.  When I danced this part, I felt like it was just me.  I felt like I was alone in the auditorium.  When I dance this role I felt so free.  This was the  moment when I really decided I wanted to be a dancer.  Playing this role made me realize how much I love to dance and how much I love being onstage.

Dancing has definitely been both amazing and a struggle.  When Nutcracker season comes, school work definitely becomes a challenge.  However, I manage to complete everything and still enjoy the season.  Every Nutcracker season gets me excited.  Nutcracker has now become a part of me and everyone I dance with is like my second family.  Dancing is one thing I will never stop doing.  Something inside of me changes when I dance and I feel so strong and graceful.

Victoria

The Conservatory of Dance’s Nutcracker has changed my life forever.  In the “Hands” song there is a quote that says...”In the end, only kindness matters.”  This has certainly taught me to be kind and generous to everybody even if I don’t particularly care for that person.  In the beginning of Nutcracker, Klara is homeless and nobody likes her at all.  But a couple of people, such as the Sugar Plum Fairy and the Nutcracker himself, spot a spark of hope in her.  Who would’ve thought that just a single dance or recital could change your life!!  But believe you me, when you put that much passion and joy in your dancing, it does.
Last year for Nutcracker, I was blessed enough to get the part of Klara.  While I danced that part, I knew what it felt like to be shoved aside or not included.  As the recital continued, there was more and more hope for Klara because people started to believe in her, which gave her confidence.  At the end, Klara expressed even though her hands are small, they are not ours but they are hers.  Klara will never be broken.  This role helped me to include others at school and to reach out to those in need during the day.  In the 4 or 5 years I was in Nutcracker, I never really understood it and just danced it.  But as I grew older and got Klara, I realized that you have to do more than just dance.  You have to do more than do your homework and do your chores.  You must put your heart into it and you will succeed and understand a lot more things. In the Nutcracker, just a couple people had hope for Klara but once others saw their example, they followed them as well! I am now a whole different person because of Nutcracker and what it means to my life.  Even someone who has no possibility of making friends or, in Klara’s case, living a good life, believe.  Believe in that person and set an example for others.  This is what I learned and got out of Nutcracker.  This dance is more important to me now because I understand it and live my dancing!!  Once you take the time to listen to the songs and lyrics in Nutcracker like I did, you will be a whole different person.  And remember, I didn’t just dance Klara because that was my job; I became Klara and put myself in her shoes.  And I learned that “in the end, only kindness matters.”  Believe and have hope for people and there will be a change just like in the Nutcracker!

Molly

When the school year starts back up, just as it did a few weeks ago, many times people ask me if I’m ok. When I ask them what they are talking about, they ask if I can handle school five days a week, homework every night, playing the flute in my school’s band, and, of course, coming to dance five or more nights a week.  Sometimes, questions like these make me think about whether I have chosen the right life for myself.  I think about how much more free and family time I would have, how many more sleepover parties I would have, how little I would have to worry about getting places and scheduling myself around dance classes and rehearsals.  But then, I think to myself, a life without dance wouldn’t be fun at all.
My mom put me in dance classes at the Conservatory of Dance when I was three years old.  She can tell you that I used to and still do flit around the house doing arabesques and pirouettes.  I’ve gone from taking Creative Movement classes once a week to taking ballet, modern, and jazz classes Monday through Thursday and Saturday as an apprentice to the company.  It’s not that I dance because I want to.  It’s because I need to.  There are so many great things that came and will continue to come from my experience at COD.  Dance has changed my attitude toward school, people, and life in general.  It is my release from the real world and I hope it will continue to be for as long as possible.
This year, in November, we will be performing at the Lerner Theatre the contemporary version of the Nutcracker and I am so excited.  I have gratefully received the most roles that I have ever gotten and I’m trying to make sure that my instructors, Miss Lydia and Miss Dawn, don’t second guess themselves about giving them to me.  Even though there are a lot of rehearsals, I want our performance to be as perfect as Miss Dawn does!

Avery