Yesterday, we went to see Urban Nutcracker. It was fabulous and the twins loved it, especially Collin. Although it contained plenty of ballet, it also featured a bunch of tap, flamenco, stepping, hip-hop, and my personal favorite, breakdancing! Everytime I see someone breakdancing I realize that I don't see nearly enough breakdancing. In fact, I think the last time I saw a live breakdancer was when I visited Poland in ?2002 (Yes, I know a very strange place to see breakdancing. I don't remember the city, but it was night, it was in a town square, it was impromtu, there was a big crowd and lots of cardboard on the sidewalk.) Anyway, this breakdancer at the Nutcracker was amazing. - lots of upsidedown spinging and death defying flippy things. Here is a quick video from the 2004 production - look for the man spinning oh his head!

Collin has been mesmerized by any stage production since we went to D's first dance recital 2 years ago. Cayla had to leave her recital after about 5 minutes and even us adults were not very attentive to the numbers that didn't involve D. Collin sat frozen in my lap the entire time, his eyes glued to the stage, and cried when we got up to leave.

Back to the Urban Nutcracker. Although it took place smack in the midst of nap time (which we usually don't mess with), both Collin and Cayla (and Flannery and I) loved the production. Cayla did get quite antsy and a bit grumbly, but seemed to enjoy herself and loved dancing in our laps. Collin was riveted. His eyes never left the stage. He clapped after impressive dance sequeces, remembered the names of characters whispered into his ears, and seemed able to keep track of the story/dancers better than Flannery and I. At one point, during Act II, he turned to Flannery and said, "There's the Nutcracker!". Flannery fumbled for her program, and sure enough, Mr. Hoop of "Mr. Hoop and the Hoopettes" was the same dancer that had played "Nut Head" (AKA the Nutcracker) in Act I.

We were planning on signing the twins up for dance class at the studio that produces the Urban Nutcracker, but the classes start in the beginning of January 2 weeks before we had back to Boston, and end in mid-June, about a month after we plan to leave. But, I think we need to find something . . .