Clara Corner: First Day Ever of Being Clara!!

Today was my first day ever (it feels so amazing to say that!) of being Clara! After class and lunch, we started up with Act 2 opening. This is the first time Clara sees the Land of the Sweets and Sugar Plum Fairy's castle. In this scene I get to dance with the Prince (played by Peter Strand, my longtime partner at Ballet Ariel) as we explore the amazing surroundings.
The next rehearsal was for the Land of the Snow. Clara and Prince dance in and out of the swirling Snowflakes on their way to Sugar Plum Fairy's castle. There were a couple really cool (and challenging) lifts in this choreography, which were fun to attempt and see improvement on as we continued to work on them.
I posted on Facebook last night about today being my first day of rehearsals as Clara, and that the first person to comment on the thread could ask me to take a picture of anything they wanted to see me doing at work today. One of my young friends said, "Make the weirdest face ever." So here it is:

This is me after Snow rehearsal, making the requested weird face, albiet a little ragged, and happy in my new leotard! Fun leotards make the day so much better-- when you feel good in what you're wearing, you dance better. At least that's my experience.
All in all a great first day in my dream role. Next rehearsal coming up on Friday in two days, I'll keep you updated as we continue learning choreography. Excited also to continue to get to know this young teenage character deeper as the process unfolds.
Information for shows and tickets here: http://balletariel.org/ticketsnutcracker/ (I am dancing Clara in the Dec 14th 8 pm show and Dec 15th 3pm show)