an online premiere of woolfworks

 i was incredibly excited for woolfworks to premiere on the royal ballet's youtube page today at 7 pm london time, 2 pm new york city time.

 

 chanda was the lucky one to see this performed on january 21, 2017, when she was in london. you can see photos from her visit here (look for pics of eva and family!).

max richter composed the music and wayne mcgregor choreographed.

these little snippets don't do it justice, but they're fun to see . .

this is the beginning of the final section . .

which you can see in rehearsal above (posted on the royal ballet's youtube channel in april of 2015)

it's a very beautiful and sad ballet, and alessandra ferri is luminous (to quote one of the reviewers) in the main role. it's on the royal ballet's youtube page until july 10th, and i highly recommend that you watch it before it goes. in a review i read, the writer mentions how the ballet is one she will never tire of seeing, and i have to agree.

tuesday night performance

 on the way to a ballet performance!

 alessandra ferri in onegin!

we sat a little further back than we thought. we were in family circle, and thought we had bought tickets in the balcony section. it was good we remembered our opera glasses!

she's the little brown dot on the left. her dancing was exquisite and passionate and i'm so happy i finally saw her dance on a stage, and not on a screen.

 it was a beautiful night with a perfect breeze.

beautiful mornings and a ballerina recommendation

 for the past few days each morning has brought a cool and refreshing breeze into the apartment. it's such a relief after the hot, hot weeks we had.

 we finished pride and prejudice and began listening to emma yesterday morning.

but then morgana's shawl pattern became too complicated and she and i got distracted by winding yarn for other projects . . chanda laid on the bed and watched joy womack's latest movies, an american ballerina who followed her dream to russia:

and here is another lovely blog article about her titled, "my life in russia."

sunday ballet class, or . . xiomara saves the day

 we had breakfast at another restaurant recommended by our local hotel worker, which turned out to be really good (schlesinger's deli), and then we dropped chanda off at the rock ballet school of philadelphia for three ballet classes beginning at 10 am: technique, variations, and contemporary.

 it was such a rainy and foggy day, and the view of the city from the school was grey and misty and melancholy.

 after dropping chanda off, greg and i went back to check out of the hotel. we were going to wander around in the rain a little (hopefully landing in a coffee shop), when chanda called to say that one of our favorite ballerina's was teaching the variations class at 11:30 am . . we rushed over so i could plant myself outside the door to watch. she's the little grey figure in between the purple leotard and the tall shoulder in the picture above.

 chanda was happily working away on the variation: tchaikovsky pas de deux which calls for very fast step-over turns. 

it's a lousy video . . i was paranoid that someone would notice me with my camera and ask me to leave.

 chanda and xiomara reyes, principle dancer with american ballet theatre. when she demonstrated the turns, she was a just a blur of movement. (we've seen ms. reyes perform rodeo in 2007, and cinderella the summer before last). after all the competition excitement (and disappointment about not making the finals), being coached by one's favorite ballerina makes everything worthwhile. one of ms. reyes' suggestions for turning was to relax one's neck and never look down. chanda said this was very helpful. turns often give her a hard time.

 pleased as punch after a great class . . 

 waiting to leave after an exhausting morning . . 

it was a very wet and nerve-racking ride home in the rain. we were hoping it would let up, but it never did. we even had to stop at one point because the car was making funny noises, but finally the freedom tower rolled into sight and we happily rode through the holland tunnel . . to home . . sweet home. we were all very happy, and so were the cats! because the poor things hadn't had much attention as our dear korrina was working a vogue knitting live event at the marriot marquis all weekend and was never home. she rolled in after us, utterly exhausted also. what a weekend!