wash the cat and a friday dance performance

wash is slowly making himself at home and we've been enjoying his company.

 

i ushered again for ellen's friday show and greg met me there. this evening i was able to catch up with some friends i hadn't seen in awhile which made me happy. amelia's piece is the perfect opener for ellen (the dancers warm up to orchestra tunings and then as the music comes in they come together as an ensemble and present ellen . . who walks through them towards the audience. also, chanda and brynn and another dancer begin in the audience and join the main group onstage almost halfway through). alumnus krista also created a really fun and clever piece that took my breath away; both dances were . . . . exquisite, adept, whimsical, excellent . . lots of superlatives to scatter about here  . . just wonderfully brilliant.

 

thank you, chanda, for my backstage pic.
 

greg and i walked home through wet streets (it must have rained during the concert), past the aids memorial which is lit up in neon for gay pride.

it was a quiet and pretty walk home . .

to wash, who came out from his cozy spot beneath the bed to grace us with his presence for a little while. (actually, we stopped and fed two neighborhood cats as a favor for chanda so she could go home early - the owners are away and she cat sits for them. i don't mind, these cats are so sweet. one is pudgy franklin and the other is shy orange tabby mert.)

second sunday of advent and backstage nutcracker photos

after annunciation

this is the irrational season

when love blooms bright and wild.

had mary been filled with reason

there'd have been no room for the child. 

by madeleine l'engle

 

---- 

below are several backstage photos chanda and her friends took over the weekend. she danced as a snow skater for the first three shows, a lead marzipan soloist for the first two shows, and a demi-soloist in the dance of the flowers for the last three shows.

 with her fellow snow skaters, amanda and tara.

 with haley as dew drop and aiñe as chinese tea dancer.

 with her marzie dancers . . 

and with aiñe and shoshana for flowers.

the alumni concert: backstage pics and after the show pics

we had breakfast together this morning (corn grits and green tea) before the girls went off to the theatre. i don't remember what greg is talking about. i wonder if they do.

i was happy that morgana sent me backstage photos . . 

 fixing francesca's hair . . 

now for the "after" pics:

 morgana with roxanne and carla of the limon company (whom she did day on earth with) and samantha of the anna sokolow company.

 the young people went off to have dinner at a thai restaurant (spice) . .

 while the older folks went to amorino for hot chocolate and gelato . . 

(the hot chocolate was too thick for me . . i wished i had ordered the gelato instead).

first day of nutcracker

 i'm so tired but have somehow survived a full day of nutcracker work. chanda and i were at the theatre at 10:15 this morning for a dress rehearsal.

we first had a breakfast of steel cut oats and tea. morgana held down the fort while chanda and i left for the theatre (stopping first in the laundry room to put several loads in). morgana stayed home until babysitting in the afternoon, and then she met me at the theatre for chanda's show.

 the call was for ten am but they didn't begin the dress until noon!!! this is so absurd. the communication was obviously poor between the person handling the scheduling information and the director of the show. it was not fun hanging out for two hours with twenty party scene children, ten mice, ten four year old christmas trees, and ten five year old little chefs. 

 obviously the costume person was overworked and didin't have time for repairs. my friend ro (short for rose marie, isn't that a pretty name?) and i stepped up to bat and we sewed up the huge tear in this pink tulle tutu. it was not an easy task and i was proud of our work.

ro had another project to do right when it was time for lunch break. her daughter and several friends threaded six needles for her before going out (she has a terrible time threading needles).

i couldn't leave her to hem this monstrosity of a dress all by herself when everyone was leaving, so i sat down and quickly stitched around to meet her halfway. she was not happy to do such a slap dash job. she likes to sew herself and appreciates careful work. sometimes, however, costumes just get thrown together.

we met the girls at cafe mille feuille. morgana calls it milly filly, which i find much easier to say.

it felt good to get out of the theatre and walk around. being so long inside without windows causes one to feel as if it's nighttime, but daylight was still there for a few more hours.

it was a wonderful show and chanda did a beautiful job dancing. here's a bit from her tech rehearsal on thursday:

i am so tired now and need to get some sleep!

sunday shows

 since greg was in seattle on friday he had a seattle times newspaper in which there was a paper cut out of marshawn lynch of the seattle seahawks.

 and he carefully put it together.

 now my nephew would not have been too pleased, probably, as he is a big patriots fan.

there were two shows today . . above is a pic of ellen directing audience members in her "lesson" which takes the place of an intermission. in the lesson she demonstrates how to create dance "sentences" to go with the music and a story behind the music. it's always a lot of fun . . 

i gave chanda my phone to take some pics backstage . . 

there's a few more but my mailbox is full and would not cooperate with me when i tried deleting messages to make room. i'll have to try another day.

 greg and i had a moment in between shows to eat lunch at a new place for us on 7th avenue (after we sent c off with her fare to eat backstage).

 artichoke toast and a BLT with spinach salad . . it was such good food.

 after the last show . . 

 chanda has to choose a painting for her next dance. she teased ellen that she wanted to use the one of the big wave in the lobby. ellen rolled her eyes and said "oh no, not another water piece."

 stragglers . . 

and leftovers all together at home . . 

load in

 our dented car all packed up with black plastic bags of costumes.

 we were out at 9:30 this morning to help janet load in to the theatre.

 it was just us girls this year. lucien, janet's third in line, stayed home with the younger ones to make breakfast. we missed his muscle . . just a little . . j and company were up to the task. i stayed with the car.

 morgana hauled the steamer in . . 

 and then she and chanda set everything up while i drove janet to the art store for pearly paint for the pearly queen (she'll use half paint and half buttons . . )

 when we returned i hemmed a few garments while they started sewing the buttons on the pearly queen's costume. we stayed until noon, drove home for lunch (and for a parking spot), and then returned in the evening (chanda went to ballet).

 rehearsal went until 8:30. walking home via the high line we came across the astronomy club. one guy had his telescope focused on the moon. it was very large and you could view the craters and really see how the earth casts a shadow. the next telescope was aimed at jupiter and four of it's sixty seven moons. they angled off in a straight line to the left and down from the planet: io, europa, ganymede and callisto. these were the galilean moons, discovered in 1609/1610 by galileo.
 it was a beautiful night.