Nov 20 2011

Rehearsal for SDB's Alice:Wonderland. Photographer:Manny Rotenburg. Dancer: Lyndon Dou. I love the energy of this shot. Lyndon is actually a very restrained guy, so its nice to see him having fun.

But we are deep in Nutcracker-land right now. Sunday is the big kid rehearsal day. We have about 100 of them running through the studio today. Running through Act Two upstairs right now. Act One later. Ending with the fight scene. Today we also need to finalize casting on some of the kid's parts.

Some of the dancers have been allowed to understudy and learn parts that may be a bit of a challenge to them. Today we find out whether they have risen to the challenge and be allowed to perform or whether they need to wait another year. While it is tempting to make someone's holiday wish come true, we also have a responsibility to our audiences to put the best show possible forward. And that comes first.