The Midnight Train Crossing

My yoga instructor had been advertising a show she was in called "Nut Cracked."

She said that it was sort of a spoof of the Nutcracker Ballet. She explained it to me as follows: there's classical ballet moves, and then all of a sudden someone starts break dancing or something. I don't know if there was actual break dancing in it, but it was very funny. She said to me afterwards that it was probably kind of strange to see her in that context. I told her since she wasn't my teacher any more, it was okay.

I don't usually go to see dance shows. Usually I'm more interested in the singing or a nice story, but since it was on campus and I knew someone in it, I figured why not? I'm not accustomed to reviewing dance shows, so I'm not sure what I'm going to write, but I'll just make it up. Most of the show used music from the Nutcracker, hence the title. I have never actually seen the full version of the Nutcracker, just random scenes that I've caught on TV. I'm sure there were some jokes I didn't catch.

The show was an hour, although first the associate artistic director Luc Vanier came out and explained the show. He had a rather entertaining take on the standard "No recording" bit. The company wouldn't mind that much, but it would probably annoy the people around you. Made me wonder if you were sneaky about it, if it would be okay... But he talked forever. I sorta wondered if he was stalling.

The helpful program broke the show down into dances, so that helped.

My favorite parts were called, according to the program: "Light", "Shades", "Top Hats", "Bubble Wrap" (best part of the whole show), "Snow", and "Noodles".

It started with three piles of random things on the stage, which the people in the company came out and took. I suspected that the piles of things had to do with later. For example, one person took a small Christmas tree, and then used it later on in the show.

"Light" was a solo performed by Jaimi Patterson. She was in toe shoes, sometimes tiptoeing around en pointe. When she first came out, she seemed a bit wobbly on her shoes, but she got more confident as the number went on. The cool part of this was that it almost seemed like she was tap dancing, in toe shoes! She was also carrying a flashlight that she shone down on her feet, and it was cool. At the end of her routine she turned the flashlight upwards and grinned.

After "Light" was another routine that I guess was called "No Red Box" where the girl (I'm guessing Christal Wagner) went through this rather robotic movement that I cannot describe, but she did it over and over again. They reminded me of marionettes actually, with very jerky bouncy music.

"Shades" and "Top Hats" sort of flowed into each other. Most of the cast performed in these two numbers. In "Shades" they were all wearing shades and in "Top Hats" they were wearing top hats. Makes sense. They alternated between doing true ballet type poses, and then into other not ballet dances... like hip hop movements. They were also very much not together, which was funny. They would be coordinated for a few minutes, and then it was pretty much a free for all, and then back together again. And at the end... everyone collapsed.

Elizabeth Johnson came out ceremoniously carrying a roll of bubble wrap, which she unrolled dramatically. She spent awhile dancing around it, almost popping the bubbles, but not actually touching it. It was like she was resisting the temptation. Then, suddenly she gave into temptation and dove onto the bubble wrap, gleefully popping bubbles. Half way through, Luc Vanier came out with his own sheet of bubble wrap and joined in. The best part was this was to Waltz of the Flowers, which fit perfectly.

Then a guy came out and lay on the stage holding the Christmas tree over his stomach. He sat up slowly, and then stood up, holding the tree above his head. Then the lights switched on. Yep. That was exciting.

Next came "Snow" where the full company came out with red knit hats. It was called "Snow" but I think it should have been called "Ice". Initially they kept slipping and sliding on the "icy" stage. As the number went on, it seemed like they were making fun of ice skating shows. They did a lot of the more famous ice skating moves, like spinning around together. This was made funnier by the fact that they kept falling down.

After that, they came out in suit coats and danced around more to more classical music. Just like in Shades and Top Hat, they did ballet for awhile, and then broke into disco moves. Best part of this was at the very end, where everyone raised their right hand and struck a pose... all except for one guy, who raised his left hand.... Then quickly switched to his right.

After that, we had Christal Wagner come out and reprise her robot dance, while Luc Vanier stood next to her on toe shoes with a red Chinese take-out box. He slurped a very long noodle the entire time that she did her dance. That was very random and funny. This was called, unsurprisingly, "Noodle".

The next routine started with a solo by my yoga teacher, Paula Biasi. Yay. Then more people came out for the rest of the routine. They were thoroughly tangled up in each other. I cannot describe it any better, probably because I'm not entirely sure what exactly they were doing. It was all hands and feet and stomping.

The next routine was "Rose", where the dancers passed a rose around between each other, in their teeth. On the first pass I wasn't entirely sure what had happened, suddenly someone different had it in their teeth, but then I caught on, they were grabbing the stem from each other with their teeth. Paula Biasi was the first one that came out with the rose, and she bit down on it quite dramatically.

Then everyone came out with flowers, and they danced around... for a very very long time. A very long time. Did I mention they danced around with the flowers for a long time? It was Waltz of the Flowers again, so it does fit, but they danced with the flowers for a long time.

Another routine was called "Thumbs" where Elizabeth Johnson and Luc Vanier kept sucking their thumbs. It was funny at first, as they got into interesting positions, and they did a spiffy twirling thing a few times. And then they continued to bite each others thumbs. Then they did so some more. Okay I get it. They're biting each others thumbs. Yup. And it's funny. And they're biting each other's thumbs again. Yup. Okay. They're done with that routine now... nope. Guess not.

After the show, they had some food in the lobby, some little pieces of bread and some cheese. The bread was yummy.

I thought that the whole cast did a great job, and it amused me greatly. The woman sitting behind me in the audience certainly thought the whole thing was hilarious, which sorta added to the fun.