a ballet recital on morgana's birthday

greg, chanda and i were up early this morning to travel out to long island city for chanda's ballet recital.

for the past two years the recital was held at the borough of manhattan community college's theatre which was just a forty minute walk for us along the river (an early morning walk we always looked forward to).

this year we hopped on the seven train which comes out on an elevated platform on long island and offers beautiful views of the city.

we finally found our way to the theatre and chanda joined her fellow dancers while i ordered a tea from the cafe downstairs.

i met up with my friends and fellow worker moms in the room designated for the littlest ballet dancers who were currently on stage rehearsing (baby ballerinas . . they're all about four years old and very cute).

of course this is the youngest ballerina there . . 

allegra, miss irene's little dancer.

after waiting a long time levels four and five gathered to hear when they would finally get to rehearse.

they were supposed to do the finale with everyone, but they ended up not doing the finale with everyone because those in charge let the little ones go (the little ones had gone thirty minutes over the time they were supposed to be released to parents), and they had to wait longer to finally do their runthrough.

finally, after running their piece miss irene kept them back to make some fine adjustments in placement.

working with allegra in a sling in her arms.

running the pastorale section one last time.

time for a break before the first show . . during which my friend ro and i ate our sandwiches and had tea down in the school's cafe with greg while the dancers went to a local coffee shop called nuvo spot. it was a great place run by a family in the neighborhood. they were so busy that the young daughter (about eleven years old) stepped in to help by taking orders and ringing up purchases. she was so self-assured and sweet.

warming up before the first show . . 

in the distance on the right is the table for the backstage area.

everyone was happy with a great first show . .

and little allegra was a unicorn for awhile.

she's usually the center of attention!

chanda with a few of her ballet friends . . 

and a class picture of levels four and five together.

working out a problem . . 

untangling a broomstick headpiece (the merlin's apprentice piece where mickey's spell on the broomstick goes awry).

here are the little sunflowers who danced to stravinsky's firebird suite.

on break after the first show . . 

view of the empire on my way to the nuvo spot coffee shop for lemonade and water.

hanging out onstage before the second show . . 

we waited backstage to make sure there weren't any last minute sewing emergencies and then we watched the show.

ro and i . . 

pam and allegra . . pam takes care of allegra once a week for miss irene and allegra has grown quite used to her. we were laughing here because she chose to stay with pam and not go to her mom, which amused her mother greatly.

on the way home . . very tired.

sunday

 sunday morning jack rested in the kitchen while the girls cooked breakfast.

 after which morgana headed out to show her modern dance to the lighting designer, while chanda and i headed downtown to tribeca again.

 miss irene with her level three students . .

 and with her level four students.

 after the two shows (morgana came to help for the second one, and watched from the "vomitory" outside the dressing room, while i watched from the house-she said all chanda's dance friends were so sweet, telling her when to watch and making sure she could see well).

 mickey's hat . . all the dancers received a cookie.

 we stayed outside for a long time while the girls ate and talked . . 

 and then friends came by so we stayed a little longer . . 

and when we were finally leaving, other friends happened to pass by . . we didn't get home until 8 pm, at which time we were all exhausted and had a cold dinner of steak, salad and black bread.

saturday

 at 8 am saturday morning chanda and i were walking downtown along the river.

 it took us thirty minutes which meant we had time to spare before the 9 am call. so we stopped at whole foods for tea and a few "kind" bars.

 at the theatre we went to our respective rooms. level four dancers were in a dressing room backstage, while the others were upstairs in one of the college's classrooms. it was a nice space with lots of windows and plenty of room for all the young girls (the boys were in a different dressing room backstage).

 i worked with andrea and doris . . 

 sewing squigglies onto black cumerbunds for the boys.

 meanwhile, my good friend elsa was given the task of trying to create "wings" for the six pegasus horses. here she's consulting rho about how to fold the tulle.

 taking the wings for approval with the head honcho . . 

 at this point elsa found out that her daughter was missing a ballet slipper, so she ran uptown to buy new shoes, while i ran home to take care of the dog. rho was left holding down the fort . . when i returned i found out that they ended up sewing the wings on in the dressing room between rehearsals.

on my way home i discovered a mobile amongst the trees:

so far i have not been able to find out what these are and who created them . . i'll keep you posted!

 when i returned to the theatre, i found out that elsa had made about twenty tulle bows in addition to sewing on the pegasus wings.

 three yards of tulle was used for each one! aren't they gorgeous!

 rho fixing her daughter's dress, and two little "calder" dancers doing the same.

 level three dancers . . 

 level one dancers with our friend isabella in the top row, second from the left.

 the show was early, at 6:30, so it was still light when leaving.

 it was nice not walking out into nighttime.

 dusk has always been a favorite time of day . . 

we enjoyed walking home as the sun set . .