Nutcracker

Thanks to the kids Dr., the family (minus Albert), were able to go see a Holiday favorite, the Nutcracker, yesterday. 3 of us had never seen it before. (Andy saw it in 2nd grade on a school trip). As a matter of fact, I had never been to the ballet before, so I had no idea what to expect.

Let me start by saying that my participation in the Arts has grown like I never imagined. Several years ago, I started getting 'educated' when Amber joined the Marching Band, and I learned how much time and effort went in to it. It started to open my eyes to a whole world I had always ignorantly made fun of.

Then came a trip to New York City, and seeing Spamalot on Broadway. I had such a good time that I took the family when the same show traveled to Columbus. The kids then performed music from Wicked in their shows. We loved the music, and got the soundtrack to hear more of it. We even got tickets for the family to go see it in Cincinnati. How I'd love to see it again.

For some reason though, while I was looking forward to seeing the ballet, there was a part of me that was apprehensive as well. I don't know why. I loved the music from the show. The dancing was good (at least my untrained eye thought so). So what was the problem?

Words. I believe that is what it comes down to. All my life I've needed words to tell a story. Ballet uses no words. You have to interpret the dance moves to follow the story. If I hadn't read the show synopsis before the ballet started, I would have been totally lost.

I believe that is why I have so much trouble with my photography as well. Trying to tell a story with just one picture is hard. How to see something, and then compose it inside that little viewfinder is my challenge. I guess that once I get one, the other might just come to me as well.