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CityState : Reporter
them realizing it .”
This month , indoor performances resume under a protocol announced in August by eight of the state ’ s biggest venues and organizations . Patrons must show proof that they are fully vaccinated , or of a negative COVID-19 test . All patrons are required to fully mask up unless eating or drinking . In September , as some venues were training the house staff on enforcing new rules , the Rhode Island Philharmonic was the first out with an indoor performance before a masked and vaccinated or tested audience .
It went smoothly . For Richard and Linda Rendine , longtime patrons of the Philharmonic , wearing a mask and showing their cards were small prices to pay for the pleasure of listening to the full orchestra play Brahms “ Symphony No . 4 .”
“ It would be nice not to wear a mask , but that ’ s not the way it is ,” Richard Rendine says . “ The most important thing is to have that physical connection with the orchestra itself , and your neighbors in seats around you that you ’ ve come to know . We missed them . The music is part of a bigger picture and this pandemic dramatized how important the whole concert experience is .”
Back at Festival Ballet , The Nutcracker ’ s “ Waltz of the Snowflakes ” is a balance between symmetry and the random interactions of individual snowflakes . Yanowsky is on his knees sketching it out on a piece of paper on the floor , surrounded by dancers bent over for a better look . They take their places , and flutes and violins pass the melody . Just under the soaring wordless chorus are the thuds of wooden toe-shoes — a counterpoint to the weightlessness their bodies convey . The company holds their stage faces throughout the six-minute piece , until they strike the coda ’ s final pose . The dancers and their fellow holiday performers across the state will put in hundreds of hours like this before they return to December ’ s stage .
“ Big , big , big ! Oh nice ,” says Yanowsky . “ Okay , now that we are a little warm , let ’ s do it again from the beginning .” �
Ellen Liberman is an award-winning journalist who has commented on politics and reported on government affairs for more than two decades .
30 RHODE ISLAND MONTHLY l DECEMBER 2021