at the ballet

before. he's not nervous.

the lone man of the dance

the first ballet was 'sylvia'

 this was tricky

they're dryads

 the second act was giselle

 here are the jilted (dead) brides

s is on the right

 they wait while myrtha calls giselle from her grave

then they have to 'chug' across the stage, slowly

these photos were taken a few seconds apart to show the movement

at the beginning, b is on the far left, and s on the far right (but really not visible)

look here to see someone else doing it! (start at 6:08)

 now they watch myrtha tell hilarion he must dance to death - and they make him do it

it was tough to push that big guy around

they show no emotions or mercy

the dancers  

mini recital

in their summer repertoire class the girls learned part of 'giselle'. the litigator and i watched a short performance on the last day of class. 

there are some strange angles. the classroom is small, and since i dropped my camera at shakespeare i have only a zoom lens. 

let's think of these as artistic shots.

there's a section famous for the 'chugs' the dancers execute across the stage. there is no bouncing, only a sliding hop. over and over. the challenge is to stay in perfect arabesque position.

i wonder what it feels like to be able to do that

it was lovely. i was the crazy mom with the camera, but i don't care!

recital

first him

then the girls

 that's s doing the fancy footwork with a french name i can't recall

they were part of a quartet of dancers in the midst of the polonaise; 

it was my favorite music (starts at 2:10)

and...watching with lots of jelly beans... (baby L was backstage with me)

and amazingly, the tears did NOT come during the performance. they came just now, as i edited my photographs and listened to the music that they have labored so hard to master the choreography to. i am proud of them! and proud of myself, that i've had a part in training these wondrous beings.

progression

first they had to learn how to sew on ribbons and elastic.

every girl sews her own

the next week, they learned how to tie the shoes on

and they feel funny

finally trying the stretches they've been learning since september

bourre, bourre (she's trying not to hold on)

springing up on pointe is hard

and walking gracefully is harder

feeling very silly