this evening was the dances patrelle yorkville nutcracker gala. it was held in a new high rise on a street specifically made to accommodate five to six other high rise buildings that were put up about twenty years ago: riverside blvd. the luxury apartments look out over the west side highway and the hudson river. it's a stark mix of buildings, sidewalks and roads without a neighborhood feel. since the building itself is new, everything shone bright and clean and felt very rich. however, chanda and i both miss the venues of past galas that were held in older buildings with a medieval like architecture.
however, the lights were very pretty and the gala committee did a very nice job decorating.
there were donated vintage purses, shoes, shawls and jewelry, along with donated services (restaurant dinners, broadway shows and tea with popular company members) for the silent auction.
i contributed two types of hors d'ouvres: cucumbers with a dilly cream cheese/yogurt spread, topped by a cherry tomato, and
cured sausage with a slice of manchego cheese and a grape. i ran into korrina's brain at murray's cheese market when buying the cheese earlier in the day (the restaurant he works at is just a few blocks away and as sous chef he often buys the cheese and produce that is needed for the day). he talked me into getting the manchego as i was considering a cheddar (it would have been slightly cheaper and i thought that it wouldn't split as readily when putting it on the toothpick). i think the manchego was the way to go, because these disappeared very quickly.
the ladies who helped in the kitchen.
the event had a chocolate fondue "waterfall," a chocolatefall? bananas, marshmallows, pineapple, strawberries and cookies were set out on plates to be dipped. i had never seen this before and it was incredibly delicious.
towards the end, one of the board members thanked everyone for helping with the event,
and the administrative director, justin allen, told a few stories about the seniors who have been with the production since they were little reindeer and pages. i thought i had gotten his full speech, along with mr. patrelle's speech, but my video taking skills weren't up to such a feat. thus, for the sake of clarity i'll explain that justin begins with a story about talia and chanda rehearsing for the spring gilbert and sullivan show in 2012, when both were eleven years old. they had the steps down perfectly, but the adult women company members were messing up and justin was getting impatient (and that's where the video picks up . . ) after justin spoke, mr. patrelle shared a little about each dancer (this is when i must have stopped filming). he praised all of them for their focus and professionalism in rehearsals, specifically remembering depending upon talia's wonderful musicality one year to lead the other children in the party scene, and also will's ability to know practically everyone's parts, matteo's agility in picking up steps, and chanda's present exquisiteness as a dancer.
the four seniors: chanda, talia, william and matteo.
talia and chanda with mr. patrelle.
photos of the children when they first started with the ballet. the top left photo is of matteo as an arabian page, the top right is william as small dutch child, the bottom left is chanda in the
gilbert and sullivan spring show from 2011, and the bottom right is talia as small chinese child.
chanda actually began with the production in 2008, a year before i began blogging.
here's a link to 2009, when she was an angel and morgana was a gingerbread dancer.
it was a fun night and i'm glad i went this year. also, i bid on a vitamix blender at the silent auction. there weren't that many bids, and i won it for a very good price (i think most of the attendees had one already!).
these blenders are very expensive in the stores, and though it was more than the one i would have bought to replace our broken blender, it was less than half the price of a vitamix.
