Nutcracker Audition

Happy November everyone! This post is a bit late, because I've had visitors with me. At the end of September, I went to an exciting annual event- Nutcracker auditions!

Inky's Nutcracker Audition

I got to my ballet school early on a Saturday morning. There were tons of kids there! The Nutcracker has many children's parts, like party children, mice, soldiers, angels, candy canes, and polichinelles. I was hoping to be a polichinelle; they're the little clown dolls that live under Mother Ginger's giant skirt. I lined up with the girls from my class.

Inky's Nutcracker Audition

Everybody stretched to get ready for the audition. The ballet mistress calls kids up in small groups to do little sequences of steps. Since I wanted to be a polichinelle, I had to practice my pas de chat, or step of the cat.

Inky's Nutcracker Audition

I stood with a girl named Hannah. We whispered a little bit about which parts we wanted. Hannah promised to cross her fingers for me.

Inky's Nutcracker Audition

Finally, the ballet mistress called my group up! We did several pas de chats and did a few little sequences of steps, called combinations. Even though I go to ballet class four times a week, I still got little butterflies in my belly as we went through the combinations.

Inky's Nutcracker Audition

The last thing we did was practice dancing around in a circle, as the Polichinelles do when they get ready to go back under Mother Ginger's skirt. I held my arms high and pointed my toes.

Inky's Nutcracker Audition

The ballet mistress looked very closely at all of the dancers. Then she starting pointing the girls she wanted- and she chose me! I made it to be a polichinelle in the B cast! There are two casts of dancers, A and B. Each cast alternates days of performance so the child dancers don't get too tired. Hannah and I high-fived! We made it! I was officially a polichinelle and Hannah was a soldier!

 That Saturday officially started Nutcracker season- ever since then, I've had rehearsals every weekend. Our performances start right after Thanksgiving. I hope you can come see me!

7 comments

  1. Congratulations, Inky! Glad you got the part you wanted. We love The Nutcracker... Wish we could see your show!

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  2. Congratulations, Inky! :) The polichinelles are close to my heart, too, because I got to play one way back when I was a little girl. Have fun! I sure did. My ballet school put on The Nutcracker every year, and my ballet instructor was a such a dear that she included even the littlest dancers in the ballet. Actually, when I was a polichinelle, I didn't get to come out from under Mother Ginger's skirt, nope. That was because the littlest dancers did as "ginger snaps."

    -Laura

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  3. Hi, Inky! I'm glad to hear about your Nutcracker. I'm doing the Nutcracker, too! We have a rehearsal every Saturday. I'm a little girl in the party scene and a Marzipan Shepherdess. I hope you're having as much fun as me! Don't you just love the Nutcracker?

    <3 Samantha

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  4. Congrats on getting the part you wanted .. how KEWL for you .. I wish we were close enough to come and watch you .. that would be so much fun ..

    Marsali

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  5. Congrats on being a Polichinelle, Inky! I wish we were doing the Selections From the Nutcracker again this year but instead we're doing a talent show (which should be fun ;) ). I'm sure we'll do the Nutcracker again in the future! That and there are talks of possibly putting on A Christmas Carol within the next few years, too.
    ~Kirsten

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  6. OOOOO congrats!!!! :D I can't wait to see how your costume will look!

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