On Thursday night, I was lucky enough to be treated to a night at the ballet (specifically to watch The Nutcracker at The Royal Opera House) and it was everything I could have dreamed of and more.
When it comes to musicals, theatre productions and basically anything that involves a stage, I personally like to be far, far away, ideally in another part of town at a dive-bar style restaurant with some friends.
I guess you could say that I am not a fan of the arts, probably because my first ever foray into the world of theatre was when I was seven and my grandma took me to watch Cats the Musical. Needless to say, from then on my love for singing and dancing on stage has been minuscule to non-existent, until last night when Van Cleef & Arpels invited me to join them at the annual festive spectacle…
It has actually come to my attention that writing this is going to be a bit of a challenge because the performance quite literally left me speechless.
From the very second I stepped inside the ROH's gilded auditorium in Covent Garden I knew that the night was set to be special, how could it not when the roof is encrusted in literal gold foil? As I was walking to my seat I eavesdropped on a few conversations around me, curious to get some intel on what I was in for. One woman said to her friend “It’s not Christmas until you see The Nutcracker,” and another asked, “Is there champagne at intermission?” It was then that I started to get excited.
This was my first time seeing The Nutcracker (I have however seen the Barbie movie rendition), come to think of it, it was my first time ever seeing a ballet. I wasn’t entirely sure what I was I was in for, but I assumed there would be a nutcracker of some variety (I was right) and I hoped that there would be pink tutus and men in tights involved (I was right again).
As the velvet red curtains began to retire into the wings, the stage was kitted out with various props of a man's kitchen. At this point, there were just two performers on stage and I wondered if things were going to remain like this for the rest of the show. Luckily for my short attention span, this was not the case.
Soon after the kitchen scene, the stage set was lifted to reveal dozens of ballerinas dancing around a giant Christmas tree, so beautifully decorated that I thought Kris Jenner must have been a part of the crew.
From then on ballerinas in tutus donned the stage, sugar plum fairies floated and toy soldiers leapt higher than I ever thought was humanly possible. It was at that moment that I strongly considered handing in my notice at Hello! Fashion and begin my new passion of becoming a ballerina. My night at the ballet as a Gen Z viewer was better than ever and I strongly, strongly recommend you go and see it for yourself and indulge yourself in a night of opulent glamour, Christmas cheer and very tight tights.
As a fashion girly who loves anything that is made from tulle and adorned with glitter, my favourite part of the whole show was of course the outfits. So much so that I woke up this morning and put my hair into a slick back ballerina bun, tied up with a bow.
Bottom line? Slay.