2nd grade field trip to the Nutcracker

Last month, the 2nd graders at Hillcrest went to see highlights from act II of The Nutcracker at the Meyer Theatre. Before the trip, they learned that a ballet is a dance that tells a story. They also learned about the original story of The Nutcracker by E.T.A. Hoffman. In the story, Clara, a young girl, gets a nutcracker for Christmas. He comes to life and is attacked by the evil Mouse King (or Queen, depending on the version of the story). Clara helps him defeat the Mouse King and finds out that her nutcracker is actually a prince! Her prince takes her to his home in the Land of the Sweets, where she meets several sweets...before she wakes up from her dream.

Photo from TallahasseeGrapevine.com

After the students learned about the author of the story, they learned more about the Russian composer of the music for the ballet, Peter Ilyich Tchaikovsky. Tchaikovsky was a musical child, constantly drumming on windowpanes (to the point that he broke the glass once and cut his hand!). When he was seven, he begged for piano lessons after hearing Mozart's Don Giovanni on a music box. Playing the piano made him too excited to sleep, though. Sadly, his father didn't think music was a "real" career, so Tchaikovsky became a law clerk instead. After his mother died, he started writing music, which became the thing in his life that gave him purpose. While he composed, he often forgot to eat. One of his quirks that the students really enjoyed was his irrational fear that his head would fall off while he was conducting an orchestra. As a result, he would hold onto his head with his left hand while conducting with his right. In addition to The Nutcracker, Tchaikovsky is also widely known for 1812 Overture (you know, the one with the cannons) and the ballet Swan Lake. (Information from Lives of the Musicians: Good Times, Bad Times (and What the Neighbors Thought) by Kathleen Krull)

Photo from Biography.com

After an introduction to what choreographers do as well, the students got to hear the story with some videos of the act II dances they'd see on our field trip.

Spanish Dance

Arabian Dance

Chinese Dance

Russian Dance

Mother Ginger

Waltz of the Flowers

Dance of the Reeds

Dance of the Sugar Plum Fairy

As we watched these videos (and after we attended the performance), we talked about the strength, musicality, flexibility, balance, and physical control that ballet requires. One of the students brought up that it's similar to ice dancing. Several students had seen some of the figure skating at last year's Olympic Winter Games, including pairs ice dancing. I showed them a couple of videos of the gold medal winning pair, Charlie White and Meryl Davis, from Michigan.

2014 US Nationals Short Program: "I Could Have Danced All Night," "With a Little Bit of Luck," and "Get Me to the Church On Time," all from the musical My Fair Lady 

2014 Sochi Winter Olympics Free Dance: Scheherazade by Nikolai Rimsky-Korsakov