TomandCandice.com

I’ve cheated on you with another blog. Please forgive me.

Posted by Candice on March 18, 2009 at 10:34 pm

A few exciting things have happened since my last post. However, I’ve been waiting to write them all up in a post about my exciting dance life in Toronto.

Last Thursday I was lucky enough to go to see the National Ballet perform Romeo and Juliet with one of my friends from school. It was not all fun and games though. We were actually there to write reviews for the National’s blog. We had only 250 words and 16 hours (8 of which I slept through) to describe a two hour ballet but, at long last they are finally posted. Please read it here. It’s only 250 words, you all can handle that!

I did really enjoy the performance though. I think my favourite dance scenes were the ensemble “folk” dances and ball scenes. They really brought the performance to life. Piotr Stanczyk’s Mercutio was also encredible. He stood out next to the two other leads. I wasn’t a huge fan of the sets and costumes, but they certainly achieved what they were going for. And of course, I was singing the music for the next three days!

However, the best part of going to the ballet is not watching the dancers but watching the audience. There were people there in evening gowns and diamonds and people in jeans and tank tops. Some people slept, some people cried, some people picked their nose and a lot of people ate ice cream. There was a grandfather and granddaughter sitting near me and before the performance started he was telling the six year old all the politics of the company - who the new dancers were, who was retiring, his take on the new directions of the company! It was strangely endearing!

I was exhausted by the end of the evening though. However, that might have been because I was up early to teach two ballet classes! That’s right, I got to play substitute teacher for two first year ballet classes while their teachers were away. The two classes were very different, and already had most of their exercise assigned, but it was fun to work with the musicians and attempt to bring some life to the dancers that early in the morning. I have to find an opportunity to teach more. It fed me for the rest of the week.

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