The Nutcracker Chronicles: Janine Kovac in conversation with Amber Flame

Folio: The Seattle Athenaeum is delighted to welcome author Janine Kovac for an evening on her memoir The Nutcracker Chronicles. Janine will be in conversation with Hedgebrook's program director Amber Flame.

The Nutcracker Chronicles, a modern twist on the beloved holiday ballet, intertwines the story of Clara and her nutcracker prince with the true-life stories that unfold backstage. The curtain rises on Ballet El Paso’s production of The Nutcracker, where young Janine Kovac is cast as Fritz, the boy who breaks the nutcracker. Her director is Ingeborg Heuser, a German woman who once performed for Hitler and who peppers her teaching with insults like, “Why can’t you just dance like a pretty girl?” At least it’s better than “You look like a cow on ice skates,” which is what the other girls hear daily.

Onstage, Janine wins the battle and embarks on a voyage through a snowy forest to the…