Opinion

Letter to the Editor: A community full of hope

A community full of hope

This past weekend, my wife, Ashley Hensel-Browning, directed “The Nutcracker” for The Dance Factory, like she does every year. I saw the Arabian dancers, the Candy Canes, the Waltz of the Flowers — things we expect in December, right? But to see them come alive in COVID times, against the wind, even my own hard heart was moved.

Ashley and her students taught and learned outdoors through Thanksgiving. They built a “Nutcracker” without live audiences or ticket sales, and without any certainty about whether the governor would allow the nuts to be cracked. Nevertheless, they persisted!

I didn’t used to know anything about “The Nutcracker” or what it means, but now I have seen it, both in normal times and these uncertain times. I have come to understand that “The Nutcracker” is a character-building project for kids who dance ballet. They start out as goslings and mice, and as they grow, their skills develop. They can become the things that they dream about. It’s not nothing.

And to see it this weekend in 2020, being filmed by SAPA at the Bellows Falls Opera House with every COVID protocol in place (only one scene’s cast allowed in the theater at a time), with Russian Cossack dancers waiting on the sidewalk outside in masks for their turn to get their temperatures checked, Mark Derosia climbing way higher than a man with a gray beard and a bag of snow should legally climb to make sure that the Snow Queen’s magical spell could be cast, and the delight in the eyes of the goslings as they scooted back under Mother Goose’s skirt, these are things money can’t buy. Only love can bring them off. I think it shines a light of hope.

It’s not accidental that this Nutcracker is made by The Dance Factory. Susan Hagan started it 35 years ago on the factory floor of the Fellows building, long before the renovation. This “Nutcracker” caused me to look back on all the changes in our community, everything that has been done and made. This thing Susan, Kate Derosia and Ashley have built on that factory floor in Springfield gives a lot of hope that we are people who make things.

For folks who want to see for themselves: look for “The Nutcracker” on SAPA and Okemo Valley TV!

Sean Whalen

Weathersfield, VT

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