"Right now, I'm not sure," [Lisa Harrison] said one recent afternoon, in Saxby's coffee shop in Manayunk, where she and her husband hunker down over cheesecake and coffee during [Thomas]' two-hour afternoon rehearsals at the nearby Pennsylvania Ballet studios in East Falls. "I can deal with it. I was joking we need a helicopter."

It's also the first Nutcracker season since the death of Lisa's mother, Joan Kline, who as a Philly teenager danced on Dick Clark's Bandstand (back before it was American Bandstand). Her absence will be felt as well - "it's bittersweet," says Lisa.

Her husband says he's marked his Google calendar with red for [Taylor]'s Nutcracker dates and green for Thomas', and adds, "It's a blur."