With the holiday season right around the corner, the festivities and jubilance often associated with wintertime is just beginning. At the forefront of this revelry is the classical ballet performance, “The Nutcracker.” “[The Nutcracker] brings about the Christmas cheer and holiday cheer in general,” explains junior Erin Flanagan. But, what serves as an elegant holiday staple for some families is the result of countless hours of rehearsal and dedication by the dancers in these shows. As freshman Cassandra Chen says, “Basically, my week consists of school and ballet, and I have like no time to hang out with my friends at all.”
For a non-dancer, the Nutcracker is an annual treat, confined to November or December, but for ballet dancers, preparing for this performance is a lengthier commitment. Sophomore Madisyn Yoo explains, “We start around October and then we have October, November, December [to rehearse], but once the [ballet] school year … starts, that’s when everyone starts learning the parts.” Ballet requires a great time commitment throughout the year, but it grows exponentially in anticipation of the “Nutcracker,” for this show requires extra rehearsal time. On the other hand, Flanagan continues with their normal ballet classes during this season, reserving “Nutcracker” rehearsal for the weekend. “We do rehearsal mainly on Saturdays anywhere from four to six hours, and it’s very hectic.” More explicitly, senior Caitlyn Chan, whose studio also rehearses on weekends, explains, “On Saturdays we have five hours of regular class … and then on Sunday, we have six hours of rehearsals that end at like 9 p.m., which is hard because normally I do my homework on Sunday night.”
The commitment not only requires dedication from student ballerinas, but also sacrifices. Chan, who has been performing in the “Nutcracker” show for 14 years, says, “We have rehearsal the day before Thanksgiving and the day after, which means that no one can really go on vacation and you don’t really have time with your family.”
Despite this massive time commitment, student ballerinas aren’t exempt from their academic work, and must find ways to fit homework into their hectic schedules. For dancers like Yoo, who get home around 9:30 or 10 p.m. each night, it’s critical to make use of any spare time. She says, “Even if you have like 30 minutes of downtime getting early schoolwork done, just trying to get it done in class, at lunch, just managing time and not procrastinating [is crucial].” Staying on top of schoolwork also requires flexibility and preparedness. For example, Chen explains, “We have to use flex time really wisely … we bring homework to dance when we aren’t dancing, or we do it afterwards and just hope we have time.”
Understandably, many student ballet dancers experience a lot of pressure as a result of their chaotic “Nutcracker” schedules. “It’s really stressful for the older kids because we have a lot of parts and we have to memorize a lot of steps,” Chen says. Luckily, after years of undergoing this duress, these student dancers have developed different strategies, aside from more sleep, to relieve their duress. For Yoo, journaling has become a source of relief. “I’ll write down all of my corrections in a notebook and I’ll get to go back to it over and over again, and that helps calm me, knowing what I need to work on ahead of time. That way, when I go into rehearsal, I’m not panicking and forgetting everything.” Another alleviator is company. “Talking with my friends helps a lot. Ballet friends especially because they understand what I’m going through and what I’m doing, and they have the same problems like exams,” says Flanagan.
Beyond all of the strategies for surviving Nutcracker season, student dancers agree that the stress and hours of practice are well worth the final result. Chan explains, “Our studio is really close and it’s really fun to get in the holiday spirit together, and suffer together … I couldn’t imagine my life without it.”
While dancers put months of hard work into preparing for “The Nutcracker,” the audience sees an effortless final product. Yoo says, “I think that’s a compliment too, when people say ‘Oh ballet’s easy’ because we’re supposed to make it look easy, right?”
