A Busy December

December has been my busiest month yet. If I thought that I had a lot going on in October or November, I was wrong! Unless I am very much mistaken, I haven't had a single day off since sometime in the end of November (not even on Sundays). Though I'm rather tired (and finding a time to go grocery shopping someimes feels like trying to solve a puzzle), I'm happy that I've been so busy because I've been busy with lots and lots of dancing.

For the first two weeks of December, I was rehearsing for a performance of a modern dance piece created by one of the academy's choreographic students, Claire. (In addition to ballet students, there are also older students who study here to become choreographers or teachers). I performed with about a dozen other people, several of whom were fellow international trainees. We performed in a small theater set up in one of the galleries of a contemporary art museum called Erarta. 

The piece explored the life and work of French writer Albert Camus. There were solo dancers portraying Camus, his self, his wife, and his lover. I was part of a group that represented society as a whole. At the end of the piece, we danced while wearing white button-down shirts that had been sewn together at the arms to create a sort of four-armed octopus, keeping us all connected to one another with no way to escape. It took some time for each of us to figure out how to dance while attached to eight other people, but we eventually got the hang of it. I liked how the piece came out and enjoyed getting to be a part of it.

We've also been rehearsing more and more in preparation for the international student's concert. Though it's not taking place until May, we've been rehearsing for quite a while now. At first glance, it seems a bit early to have already started rehearsals, but the months that remain before the production will disappear quickly after we return from our winter break and start preparing for our exams (which happen throughout March and April). 

The thing that has been keeping me really busy, though, is the school's production of the Nutcracker. It is an annual tradition for Vaganova Academy to prepare a production of the Nutcracker to be performed on the stage of the Mariinsky Theater. This year, there are eight performances of the academy's Nutcracker, half in the end of December and the rest in the beginning of January. I am dancing in the corps de ballet of the snow scene, so I've been busy with various rehearsals and run-throughs as we have been preparing for the performances, which began this weekend.

This is all that I'm going to say for now, but I promise to write longer and more detailed post about Nutcracker as soon as I have a little more time!