holiday decorations

[kfw]

Well, my wife's been decorating the house for the Christmas season and I thought I'd do my part. So I got out an old NYCB Nutcracker program I bought at a used bookstore and put it on the coffee table.

I wonder if anyone can identify the year this program was sold. The cover features a black and white shot of two kids in a spotlight looking up, probably at the tree, except that on the program they face a drawing of a Nutcracker set in a red rectangle.

Included are several essays -- the uncredited "The History of a Nutcracker," "The Chronology of the Nutcracker" by Herbert Weinstock, W.H. Auden's "Ballet's Present Eden," and Edwin Denby's "More Than Sweet Fantasy: the content of Balanchine's Nutcracker." Tallchief and Eglevsky are given the largest photos, and the program is "edited" (I find this amusing) by Lincoln Kirstein.

Anyhow, what I was really wondering is what ballet-related seasonal decorating people might do. Does anyone have any really splendid ballerina ornaments?

[Alexandra]

kfw, do you have access to a scanner? If you do, and you scan the photo, we can post it and perhaps someone can identify the dancers.

Way down at the bottom of this form, under Options, you'll see Attach file. The board can "capture" a file from your disk (only borrowing it, of course ). The photo has to be fairly small; the size and allowable extensions are posted.

I've seen ballerina ornaments, but I wouldn't say they were splendid, unfortunately. I envy your having a tree. I haven't had one in years.

[Farrell Fan]

I have a nice-looking miniature Nutcracker someone gave me one year. On the back it bears this label: "Caution: for decorative use only. Not for food use. May poison food." Merry Christmas.

[Ari]

kfw, I have a copy of the program you mention and while I can't pinpoint the exact year, it's obviously from the fifties. Allegra Kent is in it and Tanaquil Le Clerq is not, even in production shots (which is odd, since she was the original Dew Drop), so I'm guessing that it's from 1958 or 59.

[kfw]

Thanks, Ari and Alexandra. My scanner died a smelly death awhile back. Yes, the program has a shot of Kent as Sugar Plum Fairy underneath 3 smaller photos of other dancers, and opposite "Ballet's Present Eden."

[Hans]

I have a very beautiful ornament depicting what appears to be the Sugar Plum Fairy (SPF) and her Cavalier, though they are dressed for a Bournonville ballet, and the SPF is holding a Nutcracker. They appear to have been trained at a Balanchine school, as their feet are winged to about a 45-degree angle:eek:.

[Old Fashioned]

Originally posted by Hans

They appear to have been trained at a Balanchine school, as their feet are winged to about a 45-degree angle:eek:.

I don't understand- wasn't he against winging?

[Hans]

Whether he was or not, the dancers all seem to have crooked feet in arabesque. I also have a pair of ornaments apparently modeled on Marie and the Nutcracker-Prince after they've spent a few years in Confiturembourg--"rotund" doesn't do them justice:D!