Nutcracker Dr.

An Algerian couple travels to NYC during the Ukrainian War to enjoy a Russian ballet-performance of the Nutcracker and discover shared dimple.

A story about 'discovered' artistic splendor, inspired loosely by Groundhog Day (Bill Murray). 

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The Russian ballet appeared in New York and the company/dancers stayed at the illustrious city hotel while preparing for their stage-performance. An Algerian prince and his girlfriend, Amlan/Ezzy, were also staying at the very-same hotel for this visiting ballet show and were planning to attend the performance in New York.

AMLAN: This is amazing; I didn't know the Nutcracker would be so sweet.

EZZY: This company's really excellent; Russian ballet is among the world's best, Amlan.

AMLAN: Everything sticks; the costumes, choreography, color...everything!

EZZY: This is a romantic New York experience for us, eh?

Amlan hated ballet, but when he saw the Nutcracker performance by this Russian ballet-company in New York, his mouth opened. He realized that what he was admiring, during the Russo-Ukrainian tribulation in Eastern Europe, was a 'pocket' of continental beauty, drawn from a traveling theater-ballet company fortunate to perform in the United States during this extra-ordinary time. Amlan thought about all the Russian literature he'd read and why he'd never appreciated this 'other side' of Russian arts and felt more interested in ballet than before, and he told Ezzy.

AMLAN: I always thought ballet was 'stiff' or paunchy or vain but I'm moved by this Nutcracker show.

EZZY: Aren't you glad I convinced you to watch/enjoy this ballet show with me in New York?
AMLAN: Yeah; I'm telling mom that if you and I get married...this ballet experience would be 'one' inspiration!

EZZY: I suddenly feel more like your 'photography' work subject-of-interest, darling.

The Nutcracker changed Amlan's life. He'd always preferred more gritty/adventurous works of writing like those of Solzhenitsyn/Pasternak and considered more 'professional' or 'formal' theater presentations/adaptations such as those of Chaucer/Shakespeare to be more 'reflective' of the human condition(s), but the Russian-ballet Nutcracker show altered the way he'd conceived of the 'nature' of socialized choreographed dream-sleep oriented music/imagery.

AMLAN: I bought you these gold Nutcracker dolls, and I want you to marry me, Ezzy.

EZZY: Wow, all this because of one Nutcracker ballet-show, Amlan?
AMLAN: What can I say, sweetie --- the experience has given me a new 'sense' of distance.

EZZY: Cool.

Amlan had been working on a series of photography projects involving the extracted images of 'nature-in-motion' and thought about his preference for the natural splendors of non-choreographed dreamy imagery found in 'everyday' context and never thought he'd find some kind of 'secret magic' in a ballet show of all things! He wondered if his work with photo(s) of dynamic organic life were somehow now 'bonded' to this newfound appreciation of the 'distance' of ballet-theater!

EZZY: I knew you're the man I'd marry when we met in that Algerian private-school, Amlan.

AMLAN: It was you who brought me to New York during this Ukraine-disaster to enjoy the ballet, Ezzy.

EZZY: Isn't the oddity of life rather...diminutive?

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"Money is everything" (Ecclesiastes)