One of the great joys of Christmas for me has been being able to share my love of The Nutcracker with my son. Last year, I took him to see a child-friendly version by the Let’s All Dance ballet company. The look of wonderment and recognition on his face when the music started up is a memory that I’ll treasure for ever.
I’ll confess that the idea of taking a then two-year-old to a ballet had struck me as faintly ridiculous, one of those painfully middle-class-coded things I find myself doing as a parent (see also Mini Mozart). That kind of thinking, though, is in itself elitist, because who says ballet, or classical music, should be only for rarefied audiences? The popularity of The Nutcracker, not to mention shows such as The Snowman, which has been running at London’s Peacock theatre for 28 years, is testament to how children respond joyfully, and instinctively, to dance.
