nutcracker is in the air

So all of a sudden it's December, the weather has turned from crisp to cold, and a misty rain has descended over Toulouse.  And, as per the natural order of things, Nutcracker is in the air.  Tchaikovsky's least favorite score is wafting through the hallways, children are running up and down the stairs at Montaudran (our studios), and the whole city is starting to be decorated in red and white and gold.  

So, a quick review of what's happened since Thanksgiving.  Dan arrived on that Saturday, and stayed until early early Wednesday morning (thanks to a strike by the airline crew supposed to get him to Paris...), for a really really wonderful visit.  We had a great Thanksgiving dinner with 10 or so of the other dancers, completely vegetarian except for the roast chicken (apparently turkey was too hard to find in France), lots of really really good food and good wine and great company.  

The rest of his visit was spent rediscovering Toulouse, from coffee at the top of one of the buildings downtown (note all the great pink-tiled roofs you can see in the photo) with Eleonore and Jake -- two friends of friends who moved to Toulouse who I really really like -- to cassoulet at one of the traditional southwestern French restaurants in the city center to working on the lift that Patrick Swazye does at the end of Dirty Dancing in the Jardin des Plantes... in the 60 degree sunshine.  Pretty pretty good.  It was fantastic to get to see his face on this side of the Atlantic, and hard to see him go, but all in all, a really great four days. 

Since then, we've been focusing in a little more on Nutcracker, and continuing to work on Twyla's Nine Sinatra Songs.  Julian and I have gotten a few chances now to actually rehearse in the space (instead of in the back while trying to half watch the first cast and not step on anyone else), and it is really a great pas de deux, full of all sorts of opportunities to make eyes at each other, to balance and pull out long slow movements, to jump and run and be fast and slide, and to embody each movement with the character.  What felt uncomfortably awkward just a few weeks ago is starting to become natural, especially when we have Nanette, Paola, and Valerio all watching with a ton of experience and advice on how to make it all smoother.  Nutcracker is coming along, we're working with the kids in party scene now, and fitting in runs of Snow and Flowers where we can around the other rehearsals.  Michel Rahn, Nanette's husband, is here to set the last ballet for the January program, Benjamin Millepied's Paganini, but I'm not in it, so I'm getting a little bit of extra time to relax and think about Christmas shopping.  

Things otherwise are falling into place, my days continuing to mostly be full of good friends and food and folly :)  Wishing everyone warmth for the holiday season, I'll try to have some more updates along the way.