Monday, December 15, 2008

Nutcracker review






Nutcracker weekend was a great success! Dagfari did an amazing job-- his performance was totally spot on each time. I'm not sure where he gets his dancing ability or stage presence. Certainly not from either of his parents. At any rate, it appears that ballet will be a major part of the SGS curriculum for the foreseeable future.








Monday, December 8, 2008

Nutcrackers

The Nutcracker ballet is definitely our theme for this December. Dagfari's ballet school did selections for its fall recital last Saturday (his class did the Russian dance), and we went to see the NCSA production last night. And D is playing the title role of Nutcracker/Prince in a production this coming weekend. This came about because the daughter of a friend is playing Clara in this Nutcracker (which is put on by a dance school in Reynolds Auditorium), and there are no boy students in the school to play her prince. Rehearsal has been pretty intense-- basically ballet every night for a month, with a bit of a break for Thanksgiving. And he's giving three performances this weekend. Makes the whole end-of-semester/holiday season even busier for everyone, but D is having a great time, so it's worth it.
The SGS curriculum this month is mostly just ballet and art history. Sinterklaas gave D the DVD set of the BBC Private Life of Masterpieces series, which is interesting even for the non-art obsessed in our household. And he spends many hours each day practicing his dance steps, which is a bit dangerous what with the Christmas tree in the living room and kittens dashing around all over the place. Michigan relatives can look forward to a private performance over the holidays, I'm sure. Start clearing floor space now!