Out & About

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The New York Sun

Ah, the price of fame. The dancers in George Balanchine’s “The Nutcracker” got a taste of it after their performance Saturday.


That was when the New York City Ballet and the School of American Ballet invited a few hundred children and their parents to meet the cast on the Grand Promenade.


The dancers arrived in costume, but quickly became immobilized in the center of the room, where fans swarmed them for pictures and autographs.


The dancers were entirely gracious and eager to accommodate.


“It’s nice to have young people come to the ballet,” Troy Schumacher, 19, who plays a parent and a mouse, said. He estimated he’d given hundreds of autographs, and not just to aspiring ballerinas. About 30% of requests were from boys.


For young balletomanes, the fund-raising party, which costs $350 to attend, is not to be missed.


“I told my daughter we weren’t going this year, but she had other ideas,” one slightly bedraggled parent told me.


Just a couple of things distracted children from the dancers: breaking off gumdrops from the gingerbread houses that served as table centerpieces, nibbling at star-shaped sandwiches, and watching Santa Claus make a lap around the balcony before joining the dancers (and taking autograph requests, too).


“I’m inspired by the costumes, particularly the ones with the brown velvet dresses and turquoise tights,” the editor of Elle Accessories, Kelly Killoren Bensimon, said. Ms. Bensimon was a chairwoman of the event, along with Maureen Chiquet, Julia Koch, and Celeste Boele.


The party isn’t all sugar plums and candy canes. The dancers admitted it was hard work.


“My feet are tired,” Skylar Trotta, a mouse and a polichinelle, said.


A few girls broke down in tears, all for the same reason.


“Marie left without signing my book,” Claire Slocum explained as her mother, Melissa, swooped down to dry her daughter’s eyes. Claire’s father, Michael Slocum, works for Wachovia, which is the sponsor of the “Nutcracker” run. ]


Ah, the price of celebrity worship. In fact, most of the dancers disappeared at the same time, leaving room for school chums and father-daughter pairs to dance nonprofessionally – a little swing, a little rock ‘n’ roll.


agordon@nysun.com


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