I know how important the Nutcracker is to so many of you.
For me, growing up, sitting in the performance was a time of wonder. I genuinely believed the Sugar Plum Fairy was a princess. I genuinely felt a party was more fun with bows in my hair. And I was convinced — at the busiest time of year, with stress and bewilderment and darkness at almost at every turn — that what I needed most was a handsome soldier in a bright uniform to just take care of it all.
When you’re a ballerina for ten years like I was (or for ten minutes in your nearest adult class), you discover that beneath the sparkle and the grace and the pink is an enormous
a letter from the author
amount of strength. Indeed, effortless as it may seem, ballet is unequivocally a mastery of the self, a harnessing of the inner world, and a mechanism by which we shine all the light within us out in the clearest way possible.
Christmas is romantic. It always will be. The story of a baby born in Bethlehem who conquers death is a triumphant comfort and confirmation of what is possible with God.
But Christmas, much like the Bible, is not always at its best when taken literally. Nothing about Jesus’ masculinity makes him a savior. His bravery, his leadership, his courage are singular; but his love is not great because of his sex or his gender.
That got me thinking. What if the love we capture
at Christmas fell away from the male and female confines that some may think define how we can and cannot love? What if Christmas was about human love and human saving; both the way we save each other and, perhaps just as important, the way our save ourselves?
In every Nutcracker you’ve ever known, Clara takes a backseat. For 208 years, she hasn’t thrown her own party, given her own gifts, fought her own battles or even made her own sweets.
My Nutcracker still has what’s important. It has sparkle, warmth, nostalgia, joy and cozy familiarity. It has grace… but, it also has strength. The strength to center a female protagonist. The strength to turn a party girl into a heroine. And the strength to make heroines of its readers, too.
“I promise a Nutcracker that celebrates the lights of Christmas, as well as the light that comes from within.”
