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.
