For the last 10 years or so Jane Ball and I have been photographing the young dancers at Ballet West's annual production of The Nutcracker These are the kids who volunteer for the part, don't get paid, and start rehearsing sometime in September for the performances that start in early December. Bene Arnold, with a little help from her friends, does it all and has been doing it a lot longer than I have

Between Christmas and New Years of last year we were photographing the buffoons. They are the six and seven-year-olds that come out from under grandma's skirt, do their dance and go back under the skirt. We don't photograph them on stage but rather they come up to our studio and we photograph them individually

So much for the background. I photographed all eight of the buffoons individually and when I was thru I sat down and with the camera on my lap started reloading it with film. As I was doing so, I noticed out of the corner of my eye two little feet. When I got thru I looked up and there stood a little buffoon with a beautiful smile. Without a word she threw her arms around my neck and gave me a big hug. And before I could say or do anything she had scampered off. The feeling I had was hard to describe but it was wonderful. And actually left me speechless for a few minutes. By that time she was gone.

It reminded me of one of my favorite poems written by Leigh Hunt. It goes like this:

I did a little research and found out that the little buffoon was named Liesel. If anyone recalls the names of the young lovers in the sound of music they were Rolf and Liesel.

Of course I'm now in love with Liesel and I think she's fond of me. She's seven years old and I'm almost eighty two. However in these modern times the differences in our ages should not matter. I'll keep you posted.

--Rolf Kay