On the first day of Blogmas, my true love gave to me…

Hey daydreamers! It’s finally the start of 12 days of Blogmas, and I’m so excited! I’m feeling a little bit overwhelmed, since today when this post goes up I’ll actually be taking finals, but hopefully after that I’ll be able to get the rest of the posts scheduled! I’ve never done this before, and I think it’s going to be really fun! I have a ton of post ideas lined up, with a few special guests too!

To kick off Blogmas, I was originally planning on doing a Christmas-themed giveway…but then finals and Nutcracker happened and I never got around to it. I’m really sorry, but hopefully y’all will enjoy it anyway! 😉 Today, I thought I’d do a recap of this year’s Nutcracker!

I’m a ballet dancer (obviously, based on my blog design XD), and my studio/company’s annual Nutcracker is a huge part of my Christmas and is really special to me. I look forward to it every year, and this year would’ve been my first year performing as a member of the company! Of course, COVID messed it up, and in order to safely put on the production we had to do a virtual version of our show. It was still really fun even though I missed performing!

It took a ton of rehearsals and we ended up having to push filming back, but we were finally able to film the weekend before last weekend! I was super nervous the night before. Here’s what was in my performance backpack:

• hairspray
• hair bag with bobby pins, pins, hairnets, hairties
• Wet Brush
• extra pair of company tights and an extra leotard
• my company jacket and warm-up pants
• company earrings
• huge bag of stage makeup with eyeliner, mascara, eyeshadow, foundation, concealer, brow product, etc.
• light-up mirror
• some homework to do backstage

Both days I had to wake up super early to do my hair and makeup and get there by my call time. We filmed at a fancy ballroom where people have weddings, and it was so cool: spiral marble staircases, elegant double doors, intricate tile flooring, tons of glittering chandeliers, and there were even peacocks walking around in the parking lot!

We didn’t have a normal dressing room, so we hung out in this huge bathroom that was maybe the nicest bathroom I’ve ever been in. XD There was even a chandelier in there! While we waited for our time to film, we touched up hair and makeup and hung out backstage. That part was kind of boring and made me miss the actual show a lot, since filming got really delayed and we were there from 7:00 to 4:00 and 5:00 on each day.

The actual filming part went pretty well! It was kind of stressful, because there’s so many moving parts and we couldn’t always start over since we got really behind. My feet were also dying – they were stuffed in pointe shoes for 5 hours and we danced on concrete, ouch!

I played two parts this year: a Petit Fluer (Aka little flower) in the Waltz of the Flowers, and a party girl in the party scene. It was my first time performing en pointe! We had to wear masks while we danced, which we were all super used to from filming, so that was good!

This was my party girl costume! (Taken in the fancy bathroom, lol) Both of my “big sisters” had also worn this costume when they were party girls, so that was cool! I liked the pink/peach color and it was so fun to dance in. We also had to wear these hairpieces to look like 1800s ringlets.

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We had to film the party scene twice, since there were two Claras. I’ve watched the first one and it turned out pretty well, even though we had to retake it a few times! I haven’t seen the second one, though, and I randomly started doing the wrong steps and we didn’t have a chance to refilm it. That was probably the most stressful part: we didn’t have a dress rehearsal or a lot of time to prepare!

This was my costume for Waltz! The bodice/corset thing was super tight and kind of hard to breathe in, but the costume was so elegant and professional.

Filming Waltz took a lot of takes, and we had to film it three times for each Dewdrop Fairy. It was difficult to dance on the slippery/textured floor, but we figured it out and the end result was really good!

Overall, Nutcracker 2020 was definitely a different experience than normal and I really missed performing, but I had a ton of fun and the end result was really cool. Doing a virtual Nutcracker was definitely better than having no Nutcracker at all, and I’m really greateful for the experience!

I kind of liked making this type of post! It is Diary of a Daydreamer, after all, so do you think I should do more journal-entry type of posts? Or should I stick with more informative ones?

What kinds of posts do you like to see? Have you ever seen the Nutcracker? Or have you ever been in the Nutcracker? If so, what roles have you played? Are you excited for Blogmas?

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