last day of the summer ballet intensive

the ballet intensive is finally winding down. today was the last day and the dancers and their guests all traipsed out to astoria, queens, for the recital.

chanda and her friend did one last picture in the abt studios before leaving.

class photo . .

since she borrowed my phone for the day, she could take pics and movies . . here they are leaving the studios for the trip uptown.

out of the tunnel and into queens . .

at frank sinatra high school in the tony bennet theatre . . a beautiful performing space!

the friends she made at the intensive were from mexico, italy and argentina. a few of them were students of the abt school.

they danced george balanchine's theme and variations, which he created for abt in 1947 and set to tchaikovsky's suite no. 3 for orchestra in g major, opus 55. in this video, i think you can see her friend virginia from the photo above dance the solo part . . i'm not sure where c is in this pic. i think she's front row stage left so you can't see her until she runs out from the side with her partner.


in this video chanda enters first from stage left, crosses to center and then goes back to stage left with her partner (for a few seconds they're a little cut off) .  . . both m and c think i'm being ridiculous trying to pinpoint her in these incredibly blurry movies . .

they danced in simple costume tutus and black leotards . .

with her friends, moises and vicky, from mexico and argentina.

i can't believe that it's been five weeks and that it's over! it's bittersweet . . her friend is flying back to cordoba now and is probably very happy to be going home, but their instagram messages are all a bit melancholy and endearing with heartfelt thank yous and miss yous . .

back home again in the neighborhood.