The Nutcracker

We just watched the San Francisco Ballet's Nutcracker on PBS, and I highly recommend it! Of course, the girls are very much into ballet these days, and showed off their newly-acquired performance knowledge ("Look, it's the finale!" "Nice arabesque!" "I like that lift.")

But their real enjoyment was reserved for two things. First, the Snow Queen enters, and Zoe gets up close to the TV and says, "She looks Chinese!" Indeed, she did. Curiosity struck, so I surfed to the SF Ballet's website and discovered that the Snow Queen was Yuan Yuan Tan, and she is Chinese! Her bio says she was born and trained in Shanghai. Zoe was excited enough to hug the TV when Tan took her bow, and then Maya wanted to list everyone we know from Shanghai. Second exciting moment -- the Chinese dance during the second act. Still hyped on seeing a Chinese prima ballerina, Zoe was excited enough to declare, 'That's China on TV! That's ME on TV!" What a hoot! It was in miniature the excitement of the hispanic students I blogged about who were thrilled that a Spanish dance was included in their field trip ballet excursion.

Anyway, if you're interested in seeing not just a great performance of The Nutcracker this season, but in one including little touches of China, look to your local PBS station for schedules.