I was where I am when the snow began: back row in the corps de ballet. My first professional performance with a prestigious company. My first performance in The Nutcracker.
We’d practiced Act I’s ending snow scene many times. Dress rehearsal was a joy as soft snow fell all around us. As a newbie, nobody warned me about the two three-hundred pound fabric bags of confetti snow in the rafters. Nor did they tell me in the real performance, the snow would increase in intensity until we ended up in a veritable blizzard!
I was afraid I’d fall. It stuck to my eyelashes. I warned myself: don’t breathe through your mouth! But I did. With my back to the audience, I coughed like a cat hurling a furball. The curtain dropped to tumultuous applause and I’d survived. “Welcome to the real world of ballet!”
Written for Open Link Night at dVerse, the virtual pub for poets around the globe. I didn’t have time to write to Merril’s Prosery prompt for Monday, so did it late and am posting here. The prompt was to use the line “I was where I am when the snow began” from the poem The Dead of Winter by Samuel Menashe. Prosery is a piece of prose that is 144 words or less in length and includes a specific line of poetry given in a prompt.
A Dancer’s Tale was motivated by an article in the December 5th, Boston Globe, “The Snow Must Go On.” It actually quotes ballerina, Seo Hye Han who plays the Snow Queen in the Nutcracker about how the snow sticks to everything and tastes terrible because of the flame retardant on it. Boston Ballet actually does have two 300-pound fabric bags of confetti snow in the rafters for each performance of the Nutcracker. The bags are rotated and the snow slowly falls at first and does indeed, end up in a blizzard at the end of the scene. After the curtain comes down, stage hands immediately use machines similar to leaf blowers to clear the stage and save all the snow. They put the used snow through a machine to “sift out” false eyelashes, feathers, sequins etc. so there is just “pure” confetti snow left to reuse. According to the article, Boston Ballet goes through over 2,000 pounds of confetti snow in each season’s performances of the Nutcracker. Fascinating article to read! A Dancer’s Tale is purely fictional.
Image was created by me in Bing Creative! Thank you Bjorn for showing us how to use this AI!
lillian the home poet 
This was actually a fun story, so much that happens on stage has to be real challenge, and of course that snow has to be a real nuisance… I imagine how every dancer also bring home some snow and find it every for month afterwards… a bit like the needles of Christmas trees you find everywhere.
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I never thought about the comparison to all the dropped needles from a Christmas tree! Glad you enjoyed and good to see you at the LIVE session!
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There was also not spoken about the smell. And yes what could have ticked and gone home with…. 😉
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What a cathartic beginning Liillian – your telling here gave me a creative tingle
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Glad you enjoyed! I’m certain I’ll never attend another performance of the Nutcracker without thinking about all of this when it comes to the Snow Scene in the end of Act One!!
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Lillian, it was fun to hear you read this and happy for the afterword. Oh the things we do to please others! Not fair to put the dancers’ lives at risk 😦
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You know, I never thought about the cancer aspect of the flame retardant on the snow flakes. I do think probably, very little is actually ingested. But it sure gets all over them.
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Yes, it does. And not all the flame retardant we had to cope with, proved save for our health.
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p.s. Thank you for the reminder for OLN. I probably would have skipped it if you hadn’t.
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SO GLAD YOU CAME!
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❤
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Such interesting trivia, and worrying a bit! I feel like I would get mesmerized by the ballet so much, would not even think to ask questions about the snow. It goes to show just how much dance artists put into their craft and practice.
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Exactly!
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Thank you for the backstory, Lill, which was as fascinating and magical as your story. I was fanatical about ballet when I was a child, so your story resonated with me – and I love The Nutcracker.
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We saw my grand daughter in her high school’s production of The Nutcracker Reimagined. Enjoyed it a lot! Needless to say, they didn’t have two 300-pound bags of snow confetti in the rafters!
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May I hope you also went to see there masterpieces.
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This is gorgeously rendered, Lillian 😍 I so enjoyed hearing you read this one on Oln Live last night 💖💖
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Thanks, Sanaa!
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It was wonderful to hear you read this, Lillian! Thank you for writing to my prompt, and for sharing such a fascinating bit of backstage info.
When my children were very young, I won tickets to see The Nutcracker at the Academy of Music in Philadelphia. It’s a beautiful, old theater. This is the one time I ever won anything big like that–we had box seats, got to meet the Sugar Plum fairy, and got to walk up on the stage after the performance. And we got a big, old fashioned Nutcracker like the one in the ballet. I don’t remember the snow. 🙂
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Well, with that wonderful experience, I can see why you don’t remember the snow! Do you still have the nutcracker? What a fabulous experience you had!
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We do still have the nutcracker. When we get it out, I’ll take a picture for you!
I asked our daughter (younger child) if she remembers going, and she doesn’t really. She was probably only about 3 or 4 years old.
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Ah, I love that story. Indeed, being on stage is much different than it often looks from the other side. I love being on both those sides.
Beautiful story and it brought back some memories.
Hope you could still savour the applause back then.
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I think the dancers live off the applause! 🙂 During the dance, it’s the music that infuses them, at the end, it’s the applause that lifts them.
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And I can assure you that the excitement of the public and aplause is what keeps us going and what we do miss most when retired.
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I love this story. The show must go on…. The fur ball image was wonderful… yuk!
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Glad you enjoyed, Dwight!
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Yes, I did.
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A funny story, but a great introduction to the world of ballet. The coughing bit made me chuckle. Well, you survived, and I’m sure it only gets better (you as in, the protagonist).
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I have always thought the Nutcracker was magical! This year, we saw our grand daughter in her high school’s production of The Nutcracker Re-Imagined. A wonderful show but needless to say, they didn’t have two 300-pound bags of snow confetti in the rafters! 🙂 Next year we’ll go back to the Boston Ballet production….but I fear the snow scene will never be the same for me now!
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The Nutcracker ballet is one of my favorites. Thanks for making this scene come alive for me.
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Happy to oblige! 🙂
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What a great story. This is something I have never thought about. I appreciate hearing others’ memories. This is a unique experience that adds to amazingness of this production.
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The newspaper article was incredible…I don’t think I”ll ever see that snow scene in the same light again!
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I always thought a ballerina’s life is fraught with danger. Even with confetti snow. Great story.
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I think the biggest threat in the dance world to the women is an eating disorder. I’ve always hoped that ballet companies have therapists available for their dancers.
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Enjoyed hearing you read your poem and the conversations
Much♡love
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Thank you, Gillena! Always love seeing you at OLN LIVE.
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Hi Lil — I’ve really enjoyed the OLN Live Thursdays, sorry to hear they’re going away. Reading and contributing to the poetry of the d’verse online community has been wonderful, and I hope I am able to in the new year… it is my intention — when possible. Kathy comes home this Wednesday, and it appears we will be rejoining her battle, so my writing may be less frequent into the future — we will see what presents itself, as I am also dealing with my own issues. This is my 20th year posting poetry online, across a number of wonderful organized sites… and it is a joy I will not allow myself to completely abandon. I am sending this message to those in this dVerse community to whom I am most drawn, and who have shown me consistent kindness. Happy holiday to you my friend. You are a pleasure to read. ✌🏼🫶🏼
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Oh Rob…..So wonderful and poignant to read your message here. I wish for you and Kathy only good outcomes in the coming year. I must add, I really tried to keep the Thursday LIVE session intact. Sadly, I was out-voted. I’ll be hosting dVerse LIVE on Saturday, February 17th at 10 AM EST….BUT, I’ll be in San Diego! We always stay in a rental apartment in January and February in San Diego to escape a bit of Boston’s winter. So that means I’ll be hosting at 7 AM San Diego time….I think it would be the same for you? So perhaps we can both have a cup of coffee together that morning…..would LOVE to see you at least once more in a LIVE session. Happy holidays, my friend. I do indeed count you among my very special dVerse friends.
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