The Nutcracker, The Rehearsal and a Whoops Moment

Earlier this month I had the absolute pleasure of watching the Nutcracker rehearsal at the Royal Opera House in London. Now I am not sure what you think about when you hear the word rehearsal, but when I saw the rehearsal tickets advertised back in March I thought ‘rehearsal’ meant lots of ballet dancers running around in jogging bottoms with choreographers at the front of the stage shouting and pointing in different directions. ‘Hmmm interesting’, I thought to myself…a behind the scenes look into the practicing regime of a dancer and at a very good price too so without hesitation I booked the tickets.

Turns out I was very wrong and in my haste to book the tickets I didn’t read the small print. On the day of the rehearsal, before taking a seat I asked one of the theatre staff how long the session was for. ‘It’s about 2 hours with a half hour interval’ they replied . Long rehearsal I thought to myself.

As the curtains opened, exposing the most beautiful scenery, I realised that I would not be watching lots of dancers running around in jogging bottoms but instead a full dress rehearsal of my all time favourite ballet the Nutcracker. The whoops moment of all of this was that I had booked tickets for the full performance a few weeks later (so I could compare the rehearsal with the real deal). This certainly will be a nutcracker Christmas to remember, roll on 21st December for round two of the Nutcracker!