A ‘Marathon Of Pain’: What It’s Like For The Professional Dancers Doing ‘Nutcracker’ For A Month, Year After Year

Sarah L. Kaufman: “For many families, The Nutcracker is a beloved holiday ritual, a respite from the season’s stresses, an oasis of beauty, innocence and poetry. For the dancers, it is a marathon of pain, physical and existential. It is a minefield of injuries, illnesses and choking hazards. It can be crushingly boring. It also involves incontinent children.”