Nutcracker Ballet – Diary of a Daydreamer

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.

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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Hey daydreamers!

AHH GUYS I’M SO EXCITED THAT CHRISTMAS IS FINALLY HERE! For me, Christmas is Amy Grant music, decorating the Christmas tree, making wishlists, and dancing in the Nutcracker. I love love love the Nutcracker ballet – it’s my favorite of all time and I love watching other ballet companies versions of it on YouTube, and performing in it is such a huge part of my Christmas!

So I thought for December it would be perfect to do a Nutcracker spread! A few months ago, I posted a bullet journal monthly spread for September, and I was really happy with how it turned out! But the problem is, I never actually ended up using it! And none of the ideas were my own – I copied everything from AmandaRachLee. And there’s definitely nothing wrong with recreating spreads, but this month I decided that I would try to create my own spread ideas. And I’m really glad I did! I think it turned out pretty well. (Most of it, at least…)

And if you recreate this spread, I would LOVE to see it! Shoot me an email at emeraldphoenix[at]icloud[com], and you’ll be featured in my next post! ~~I wonder how many people would actually recreate this lol~~

I think my opening page is my absolute favorite out of all the spreads! The quote is from the Nutcracker and the Four Realms (which I’ve only watched 30 minutes of, haha), and I drew the snowflakes from a bunch of different tutorials I found online. The drawing of Clara and the Nutcracker prince I copied from an image I found on Google, and I really love how the drawing looks! I liked drawing both of their outfits.

This next spread is my calendar spread, and the theme for this one was the Land of Sweets! I drew the Sugar Plum fairy with tons of candy and treats, and I colored her in so she would pop off the page. I also wrote “DECEMBER” in a tall thin font and the months at the top in a cursive calligraphy font!

On the next pages, I have my habit tracker spread that’s battle-scene themed, and a mood tracker. The mood tracker was supposed to be like the party scene, with the Nutcracker doll under the tree and Clara walking by, but it almost looks like Clara is watching the tree grow the way she’s positioned. What do you think?

My habit tracker is my second favorite! Although Clara’s face looks really strange…I drew the Nutcracker and Rat King fighting off of images I found on Google. Each of the mini-calendars has one of the habits that I want to keep up every day this month, and each day I’ll color in the boxes that I complete the task!

And this side has my mood tracker from the party/transformation scene! On each day, I’ll color in an ornament/star/present/light/Nutcracker hat according to what my mood is that day, based on the key.

My next spreads are my playlist and brain dump! The playlist represents the scene where Clara and the Nutcracker are traveling to the Land of Sweets and they pass through the clouds. The angels light the way with their candles and announce their arrival with trumpets. On the right is my brain dump page, which is based on one of the dances from the Land of Sweets with Mother Ginger and the Polchinelles. Mother Ginger opens her giant skirt to reveal her little gingerbread clown children, who cartwheel and dance for Clara.

On the playlist page, I drew two angels and wrote out some of my favorite Christmas songs and albums. My favorites on this page are “Like It’s Christmas” by the Jonas Brothers and “Hallelujah” By Pentatonix!”

(Sorry there’s a weird line of White-Out in the middle of the page…) This page looked really great until I colored it, and then everything looked really messy…Oh well. The idea is to write random thoughts, ideas, lines, lyrics, and to-dos inside the skirt.

Moving on to my weekly spreads! I decided to draw all of my weekly spreads out before the month this time, since last month I forgot to draw my other weekly spreads and didn’t end up using it.

For the first week, I drew a Spanish dancer! She looks very full of herself and above everyone, haha. The Spanish dance for Clara with fans to represent chocolate.

Next I drew a Chinese dancer, and oof…she looked WAY better before I colored her! Everything got really messy and weird colors, plus her hair looks blonde for some reason because my light was reflecting the pen? IDK. But the Chinese dance with a parasol and represent tea.

This one might be my favorite weekly spread drawing! I love how her skirt and pointe shoes turned out, and her little lamb is so cute! The mirlitons are Danish shepherdesses that represent either marzipan or mirliton candies, depending on the version of the Nutcracker.

The Russian dancer was a little harder to draw, since the Russian dance doesn’t really have a distinctive costume, but the song is probably the most recognizable in the whole ballet. The Russians dance a trepak to represent candy canes.

Finally, I drew an Arabian dancer! I think she turned out pretty well and her costume is pretty accurate, but I just realized I forgot to color the banners on the Russian and Arabian dancers…oh well! The Arabian dancers are supposed to represent coffee.

If you recreate this spread, don’t forgot to send it to me! Shoot me an email at emeraldphoenix[at]icloud[com], and you’ll be featured in my next post! Merry Christmas, guys! (AHH I CAN FINALLY SAY THAT)

P.S. – If you share this post by reblogging, pinning on Pinterest, sharing on social media, or sending the link to a friend, you’ll get three FREE desktop wallpapers sent straight to your inbox! Just leave a comment telling me how you shared this post!