Why do we still like The Nutcracker?

Cast of The Nutcracker performed by the Westside School of Ballet, 2019

Fantasy... joy.  Pretty music, dances, and costumes.  These all provide escape from the drabness, dullness, and drudgery of real life.

But still I wonder: why does this antiquated ballet give pleasure in 2019?

I've seen it scores of times.

At one point, I swore I'd never attend The Nutcracker again.  That was the year I had so many rehearsals and performances to drive my daughters to that I was satiated with the saccharine, 19th-century classist story as well as its costumes and dance.

The story line of Clara and her toy is brief.  The dream she has afterward is interminable and plotless, just an excuse to showcase one dance after another for every type of candy there was in 1880, followed by a waltz for roses and then solo performances by the Sugar Plum Fairy and her prince.

For some reason, the dances didn't seem to go on forever this year.  The live performance of Tchaikovsky's music by the Santa Monica College Symphony Orchestra carried me along with joy and pleasure.  I watched the 10-year-old next door scamper about as a polichinelle with a cluster of bouncing ringlets on each side of her face.

Sitting next to two of my daughters, I realized that it is exactly thirty years since I first took 7-year-old Roz, 4-year-old Ellen, and 2-year-old Marie to see this extravaganza.  At the time I knew that taking a 2-year-old was asking for trouble, but Roz was taking ballet classes, enjoyed the performance, and still remembers it.  In fact, she became very involved in ballet for the next eleven years.  

The fact was that I couldn't afford a babysitter.  Marie had to come.  By bringing a supply of candy and a juice bottle, I somehow made it through.

This year the stage for me was framed by hours of impeachment testimony in the House Intelligence Committee and the House Judiciary Committee. 

Our nation is plagued by a dishonest president and his cronies, gun violence, cruelty toward immigrants, enhanced wealth, increased poverty, environmental crimes, and a thousand other ills. 

Thus it makes sense that people want to spend three hours in a fantasy Victorian world that presumes wealth and along with servants and poor street vendors.  

The whole show is lies--but they are pretty lies danced with exquisite skill to music that yearns for joy and beauty.  All I can do is succumb and promise to face the grim reality of December 2019 later.