A few months ago when Jenna and I went to the UCT School of Ballet I noticed a poster advertising The Nutcracker Ballet.
I tucked that information away quietly in my memory for some special mother-daughter time.
I'm so glad I did!
And just for some extra special added memories, I invited her granny a long too.
We left Dad and Michael at home, something we hardly ever do, but they had an evening of lego building planned.......boys and their toys ;-)
We shared an early supper with Granny and Grandpa at their home and then it was time to dress up for the performance......
a very happy ballerina wearing her evening attire. (Thanks, Rachie!)
Granny and Grandpa recently returned from an overseas trip to the UK where they had bought Jenna a DVD of Mikhail Baryshnikov and Gelsey Kirkland dancing in The Nutcracker.
She has spent many afternoons on the couch watching them dance!
Ray's mom was so touched to have shared this first night at the ballet with her one and only grand daughter. They are regular visitors to the theatre, in fact Grandpa has acted on the very stage which we sat in front of!
So when I bought the tickets I asked their advice on which would be the best seats for us to sit in.
Front row seats-they're actually the cheapest and for little ones there's absolutely no obstruction to their view!
I'm so glad I took their advice, because they really were THE BEST seats in the house!
Not only could Jenna see every dancer (and their costumes) up close, but when the mice came out they mischievously headed straight towards her to tickle her toes!
And when the final curtain had lowered and Mr. Drosselmeyer brought the toy nutcracker out, she got to shake his hand good-bye.
She sat through the entire performance in absolute awe of every dancer and costume, excitedly telling me the names to her favourite pieces of music or characters.
I was so impressed with her-perhaps I shouldn't fret so much about her moments of Starfall and DVD watching obsessions after all :-)
When the show was over she asked if we could go back stage to touch all of the beautiful costumes-she's such a lover of all things beautiful! But sadly that was one thing I couldn't organise for her.
As we were leaving we passed the steps to take you up onto the stage and I could see her feet were itching to walk up those stairs,
but they turned the stage lights off and all went dark telling us it was time to head to the exit doors......
until Granny asked the stage hand-who had peeked his head around the curtain to call up to the lighting guys- "Could we please take a photograph?"
With a quick direction from below the spotlights were turned on again and my little ballerina got to stand centre stage under the lights!
A late night for a little girl, but all well worth it to see the joy on my little ballerina's face as she fell asleep in the car seat beside me while I drove us home from her first night at the ballet.
