Щелкунчик

In honor of the fact that it is now March, I am finally going to write the blog post that I've been meaning to write since the middle of December - about one of last semester's biggest highlights, the school's production of the Nutcracker. Here, the Nutcracker is called by its Russian name, Щелкунчик (pronounced like shell-coon-chick). It is an annual tradition for the Vaganova Academy to put together a full production of the Nutcracker to be performed at the Mariinsky Theater several times (this year it was eight) throughout December and January. I got to dance as a member of the corps de ballet of the snow scene, one of my favorite parts of the whole ballet, which made me really happy.

I love taking photos and ended up with quite a few by the end of the last performance. I've chosen a few of my favorite ones to post here.

This is the front of the Mariinsky Theater with a banner advertising our Nutcracker performances.

Here are a few pictures from backstage, the first one of a costume-less rehearsal on stage.

The Mariinsky Ballet performs different ballets nearly every day, and often two different productions will take place on the same day, so the sets are constantly being changed. When we arrived for rehearsals, sometimes parts of the sets from the previous night's performance would still be there. There was one rehearsal that took place the day after a performance of Swan Lake, so we got to rehearse in front of one of the backdrops from that production.

The dressing rooms were sometimes scattered with tutus and headpieces left out to dry by members of the corps de ballet. These ones are also from Swan Lake.

(I really like Swan Lake, so this made me very happy).

I also found these plaster-swans-on-wheels sitting backstage during one of our rehearsals. Like a large-scale version of a child's toy, the swans are attached to a rolling metal frame so that they can be pulled on a rope from one side of the stage to the other. Each swan even has a up-side-down swan below it to make it look like the original swan is being reflected in the water of the lake (backdrop) as it swims.

Here I am, posing with some of the swans after finishing a rehearsal of the snow scene. (The picture is really dark, unfortunately).

After I finished my scene in the Nutcracker, I was free to watch the rest of the show from backstage. I didn't watch every time, but I still managed to see most of the final act of the ballet at least five times. This photo was taken during the Waltz of the Flowers.

This is my snowflake tutu.

 

The strings of pompoms get wrapped around each arm, and then the outfit is competed by the addition of a white wig.

Here I am (on the left) with some of the other international trainees who were also snowflakes - Uka, Saki, and Nana, all from Japan.

This is me in my snow outfit (again).

Here's a view of the theater as seen from onstage. It's beautiful, but hard to fully appreciate when you're in the audience.

And here I am :)