The Nutcracker was an incredible experience! All those weeks of practice paid off. The girls were able to dance on stage with professional dancers in front of a packed audience. And they all danced beautifully!

My Mom came for the performance, and we'll buy the DVD to show my sister and our friends. (Since this is a professional performance, the ticket prices reflect that!) Even Hope enjoyed watching her sisters dance.

The days leading up to the performance were full of practices and last minute adjustments. The day of the performance, the girls had costume fittings, pictures, practice with the Russians, and the actual performance. They got to wear some make-up, which they all thought was fun. Faith did a great job doing her makeup herself.

I was a little concerned that Joy and Grace might get nervous being on stage with the Russian dancers, but they did great. ( I did do some serious praying in the audience!) They were snowflakes, which is the youngest group of dancers. They remembered their dance, even the part that was changed the afternoon of the performance!

Faith was a party guest. Since she is tall, she had to wear a boy costume (which no modern boy I know would ever wear, and which is fancier than what most of her girlfriends wear to church on Sunday!). The children were on stage for a long time and danced well.

Faith also was a butterfly. Her costume was gorgeous! This was a much harder dance than the party guest dance, and she was great! The girls danced on pointe and were beautiful. She was the youngest girl in this part, but she definitely held her own! I was so proud of her. She had to work hard to learn the dance, but she persevered. Since she's only been taking pointe since January, I was really impressed with her dancing.

At the end of the show, all the performers, adults and children, came out for the bow. After the first bow, the dancer playing Masha (Clara in the American version) took Grace's hand and the dancer playing Drosselmeyer (the toymaker uncle) took Joy's hand and the group bowed again. That was so cool! I wish I could have taken a picture, but that wasn't allowed, so I'll just have to imprint the image on my mind and make sure that they remember it.

The girls and I hope they have the opportunity to dance in the Nutcracker again next year!