Never forget.

My first Drosselmeyer went well this morning I'm happy to report. What I'm interested in writing about now is a bit of eavesdropping I did while getting prepared in my dressing room.

The young boys in the production and their mothers have the dressing room directly next to mine. The boys range from ages six to fourteen. This morning, the air was buzzing with their excitement. Not only were they talking about the upcoming performance, but they talked about funny or cool things company members had said or done in the recent days. They talked about video games. They spoke about their families. Most interesting though, was hearing them compare how they got started in dance.

Hearing these tidbits made me analyze the importance of remembering how we come to the places we are now as adults. For all of us, there are dreams from our childhood that jump started our minds and helped us to think about "what we wanted to be when we grew up." Although sometimes we deviate from those dreams in adulthood, they still exist somewhere in our memory, and the ability to tap back into the energy of them can make a huge difference in our careers and our lives. In the times when we find ourselves stuck or without inspiration, if we can look back and tap into those memories, I believe we can do much more than simply "pull through" the difficulty. It may even help us to refocus and perhaps do something scary and/or risky that could put our lives back on a track that may be closer to that of our initial dreams.

I have always enjoyed hearing the simple wisdom that comes out of the voices of children. Yes, sometimes their energy can be jarring, but during Nutcracker, I am going to try to listen to their innocent voices and see what other lessons they may spark in my mind.