Reliving childhood at the Oakville Nutcracker

I spent yesterday reliving memories of being a little girl and wanting, desperately, to be Clara, the main little girl in the ballet The Nutcracker.

I grew up in a city where the ballet company put on a terrific production annually and local kids would audition for the small group roles of the mice, chefs, mini candy canes. The girls in the show practiced evenings and would come in late to school wearing a ribboned badge to show their ballet involvement.

Oh, the envy I had for those ribbons. I loved sitting in the audience but boy oh boy did I want to be backstage where the action was like my friends who were on stage.

Fast forward thirty years and I found myself sitting with my fascinated and suitably impressed six year old daughter and Grandma at the Oakville Ballet School production of The Nutcracker at the Oakville Centre. Unknown to myself at the time, I didn’t realize that most of the ballerinas were children from the ballet school.

Unbelievably talented children.

I was shocked at the level of excellence – both in performance by the dancers and with the stage sets and costumes. This show has been produced for the last 30 years so it’s a well oiled machine. I was beyond impressed.

If you live in Oakville, there’s simply zero need to head to Toronto to see the National ballet Nutcracker. The price was right, it's based right here in Oakville and featured local dancers.

Such an excellent afternoon spent with my daughter who was awestruck by the beauty on stage and inspired to keep at her own ballet lessons and be Clara herself.