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| Pacific Northwest Ballet Principal Dancer Lesley Rausch as Dewdrop in George Balanchine's The Nutcracker. photo @ Angela Sterling |
When I heard the news about Covid's Omicron variant a couple of
weeks back, my body just clenched up. “Oh, what fresh hell is this?” I asked
myself.
These are dark times, literally and metaphorically, as we
hover near Winter Solstice with so few hours of daylight, and news reports of rising infection rates and
ongoing political strife crash ashore endlessly.
I always struggle in December, so it’s become my practice
to seek out moments of joy wherever they present themselves; simple pleasures--holiday lights emerging like mushrooms on houses and shops across the
city, glowing like beacons in the long stretches of darkness. Or baking for
friends, with KING-FM on in the background.
Or annual holiday performances, a pleasure I took for
granted until last year, pre-vaccine, when the pandemic forced the cancellation or
the migration of live shows to online streams. We’ve learned to love, or at
least live with, digital performances, but for me there’s nothing like sitting
in an audience with other people.
I’ve written before about the giddiness I experienced upon
entering McCaw Hall to see Pacific Northwest Ballet’s Nutcracker. I had
a similar sense of glee this month at a performance of A Christmas Carol,
at ACT Theatre.
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| R. Hamilton Wright, Amy Thone and Nathaniel Tenebaum in ACT Theatre's production of A Christmas Carol. Photo courtesy ACT Theatre |
Actor Nathaniel Tenenbaum’s pre-show speech started off with
a rousing “we’re back!” followed by a shout backstage to his fellow cast
members “they’re here in the seats!” I got goose bumps, and a bit misty eyed,
and filled with the familiar anticipation of the play about to unfold.
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| Julie Briskman, the Ghost of Christmas Present in ACT Theatre's A Christmas Carol photo @ Hannah Delon, courtesy ACT |
As I watched the brilliant Julie Briskman, the Ghost of
Christmas Present, rise up from below the stage on a chaise, draped in green
velvet with a matching garland of greenery crowning her head, I broke into a
huge smile. Of course, it was under my mask, so nobody saw it, but I know the
rest of the audience was probably smiling too.
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| PNB company members with Noelani Pantastico as Dewdrop, 2016 photo @ Angela Sterling |
What I didn’t realize was that, this year, performers are
relishing these moments too. Arts organizations here and around the world have
struggled to keep their heads above water through the pandemic, so reopening
with a holiday classic has new meaning.
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| Lesley Rausch with her Cavalier, Dylan Wald in George Balanchine's The Nutcracker photo @ Angela Sterling |
“Sometimes, we get to Nutcracker and it’s like, ‘oh,
here we go again.”
Principal dancer Lesley Rausch is in the middle of her 20th
season dancing with PNB, so she’s performed her share of Nutcrackers. For
Rausch and her fellow company members, the chance to be on stage this December
is a return to business as usual, albeit with a twist.
“We’re testing every other day during Nutcracker,
with rapid (antigen) tests,” she explains. “There’s a little bit of fear every
time that what if this is the time that the virus slips through? It affects the
whole company.”
That fear is particularly acute now that Omicron is raging
through New York, forcing Broadway theaters to close down shows. As I write
these words, Puget Sound arts organizations remain open, but on high alert.
At PNB, everyone backstage is still masked, including the
dancers. The masks don’t come off until they twirl out from the wings. Which is
only fair, because all of us audience members are also masked. (BTW, that mask should cover your mouth and nose! It doesn’t do anything hanging over your
chin except make me want to yell at you!)
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| Lesley Rausch and Dylan Wald in PNB's 2021 production of The Nutcracker photo @ Angela Sterling |
This year, watching Rausch and Dylan Wald take the stage as the
Sugar Plum Fairy and her Cavalier touched me in a way that the familiar pas de
deux normally doesn’t. I like the choreography, and love the music, but I’ve
seen Nutcracker so many times that I’m often not completely present. This
year, though, Rausch and Wald created a magic that I’ve been missing; she truly
was a gossamer fairy in Wald’s arms, her descent to the stage from each leap an
evanescent, gravity-defiant shimmer.
Rausch says dancing in this year’s Nutcracker has brought her a renewed energy for a show that can sometimes feel like an annual grind. We may see it only once a year, but for dancers, especially those in the corps de ballet, the four-week Nutcracker run can be grueling. This year, though, Rausch treasures every performance.
“We’ve all just been craving it so much!” she says. “Thursday
night’s show wasn’t even full, but the audience was wild. I got applause for
just walking out on stage. I never had so much fun out there, it was a blast!”
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| PNB company members in George Balanchine's The Nutcracker photo @ Angela Sterling |
In the darkness of a second pandemic winter, audiences are
grateful to be able to sit in theaters again, to savor holiday traditions. Sometimes
we need to respond with more than cheers and applause.
“I got a letter in the mail, from a little girl,” says
Rausch. “She told me how much she loved watching me as Sugar Plum and how she
wants to be just like me when she grows up.”
The girl included a gift for the ballerina--a home-made
holiday ornament, fashioned from popsicle sticks and covered with glitter.
Rausch’s big blue eyes fill with tears as she tells me this
story.
“I mean, cue the water works! We’re so removed from the
audience as performers, you forget the impact you can have on somebody’s life!”
When it comes to moments of joy and grace in the December
darkness, it doesn’t get brighter than that.
Pacific Northwest Ballet’s production of George Balanchine’s The Nutcracker is onstage at McCaw Hall through December 28. ACT’s A Christmas Carol is onstage through December 26.
