Resolution
After waiting forever, we finally have a resolution to the Nutcracker Roles Mystery.
Nutcracker 1 – with her studio’s pre-professional company – Pumpkin Girl will be a Mother Ginger Tumbler, which is the role she’d wanted with the other production. She was disappointed that the smaller girls are the only ones who get to hide under Mother Ginger’s skirt, but she’s in the group that gets to do all the cartwheels. Not to mention that this is a “bonus” Nutcracker, that we only just found out about a week ago. And, more bonus, the other production doesn’t even have Mother Ginger tumblers this year.
Nutcracker 2 – with the city’s philharmonic- She is in the marzipan dance. It’s also known as the merliton or shepherd’s dance and also the Dance of the Reed Flutes. This variation was at the absolute bottom of her list, but I’d been coaching her all these weeks to brace herself for getting it. Turns out that the reason she didn’t want this one was because she didn’t understand how to hold her arms during the auditions. But she is very happy that one of her fellow sheep from last year – who is also in one of her classes- is in Marzipan with her and is in the same cast, so that softened the blow.
I thought she did pretty well handling the small disappointments. It’s tough being 9 and not really having the skills to look on the bright side and bounce back. It’s a good life lesson, though. At the very least, now we can move from the anticipation that was driving us crazy!
