I find this very interesting. Can totally relate to the queue graphic 
(Via)
Tag Archive for 'Travel'
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Who travels with a fat hardcover like this? Bag is so heavy!
Wentworth & leggett rare bookshop
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Favorite bookstore in Durham. They have the best collection of dance books I’ve seen anywhere. Three shelves.
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Now listening to (and learning about) Tchaikovsky.
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Listening to alvin ailey’s revelations & starting to get v excited about season – begins rt after holiday!
Originally uploaded by swan lake samba girl via mobile.
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are becoming so common these days! I remember giggling at my mom’s old photos and home movies from the 60s of family members walking up the wobbly narrow airplane steps, grabbing the hand rail for dear life to steady themselves for turning and waving to my mom, sometimes even with an infant in one arm, and thinking, wow how much more civilized we’ve become with the little inside hallways that make it seem like you’re not even leaving the airport. And now I’ve done just as my “ancestors” several times in the past couple years, even including international flights…
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Across the quay from the tate liverpool, which has an excellent exhibit on 20th century art as part of the 2008 european cultural capital festivities.
England is neither the u.s. Nor europe
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So you need different electrical converters. I am the only one who seems to remember this! It’s ok- nice to feel popular
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About which side of the cab is the passenger side!
Hi everyone — so sorry it took me so long to post! I finally have my little photo album of my trip up here. Click on the thumbnail for a full picture and caption.
Here are a few of my favorites:
coast of San Juan, Puerto Rico.
the Bacardi mascot! And the only picture with me in it — my reflection, looking a little cross-eyed trying to get the perfect shot, is in the back mirror…
Puerto Rican folk dancing show in the San Cristobal Fortress in central Old San Juan.
long, dark, kinda-scary-if-you’re-alone tunnel leading to the Fortress’s courtyard.
colorful buildings of old San Juan, on a busy street at night-time.
pastel-colored, yacht-ridden Tortola, capital of the British Virgin Islands.
“Treasure Island” in the back through the haze, off the coast of Tortola.
beautiful clean water!
climbing the long, tortuous, dirt roads of the immensely mountainous island. Houses are sparsely located; each owner seems to have their own latitude (or is it longitude?) of mountainside…
about half-way up to the top. How large does our ship look down there?!
mural of Tortolan folk dance known as Bamboshay, which our tour guide described as a cross between Dominican merengue and Cuban / Puerto Rican Salsa.
Samana, a very rural, agricultural area on the northeastern coast of the Dominican Republic. In sharp contrast to the very middle-class Tortola, Samana is very poor.
children would see our open-air tour bus approach and would run outside hands opened begging for American money. This little boy started to cry after our tour guide told him to get lost. After that, people felt sorry for the little ones, so they’d give them dollar bills, which really opened up the flood gates of every house along every street…
They’re building a dam so hopefully by this time next year they will have running water. Right now people — mostly women and children from what I saw — had to walk to a well or a local proprietor with imported bottled water for sale and carry large bottles back to their houses. Most people didn’t own cars. Some had a mule or horse, and a lucky few had scooters, but most just walked everywhere.
a man on his chicken farm. People here were so unused to tourists, everyone was so nice. They’d all come out of their houses, wave at us, or come up and talk to us — or our tour guide anyway, who would translate their Spanish into English.
man washing his hands in the ocean.
artwork for sale on the beach.
hehehe, I was one of the two Americans brave enough to eat the local food. At a beach restaurant (basically two picnic tables set up outside of woman’s kitchen) I tried to order rice and beans, but the restaurant owner / cook couldn’t understand my Spanglish. A man ordered fish, so I asked her if she had “pollo / chicken?” Her face brightened into a big smile and she screamed “yes, yes!” It was definitely her specialty — the best barbecued chicken I’ve ever had!
The other Americans, though they wouldn’t order food, had no problem ordering drinks. They all ordered pina coladas, but I took the tour guide’s suggestion and ordered a local “coco loco” which I discovered was simple coconut juice and rum. The woman who owned the restaurant came out to our table bearing what appeared to be a machete. I jumped in my seat, almost threw my wallet at her and ran off. Everyone must have had the same facial expression as me, since she looked at us all like we were nuts. She soon returned with some pinapples and a coconut for me, hacked off the tops of the fruit, plopped some straws into each and set them before us, along with a big ole bottle of rum. We all looked at each other quizzically. We were supposed to decide how much rum to put in our own drinks! I’m not a bartender! I had to ask her to do mine for me. She really thought we were a crazy group. That was an excellent meal though…
One woman felt sorry for the dog sitting at my feet and ordered a chicken plate just to give to him. Of course after she was all done feeding the cute little guy, her hands were covered with barbecue sauce and grease (I ate mine with fork and knife). She then asked for a faucet. There’s no running water on the island, hence no such thing (we had to flush toilets with buckets of water — I never got the hang of it to be honest and just resigned not to have to go to the bathroom the whole time I was there). When the restaurant owner simply frowned, the American woman of course began to hystericize — “what do I do, what do I do, my hands, my hands!” The poor restaurant owner had to bring out a jug of very coveted water and pour it over the tourist woman’s hands. Then everyone else wanted some. I was so embarrassed!
some more houses amidst the beautiful, lush greenery.
now taking a private scooter ride into the town to shop. The tourist shops were overpriced, but I felt like it was such a poor country that so needed tourist dollars, I bought a couple of things — a cute little monkey made out of a coconut and a little hand painting.
Anyway, I have many more pics, here!
Coast of samana, dominican republic
Originally uploaded by swan lake samba girl via mobile.
Beautiful beautiful land but very very poor. Children run to you with open hands wanting u.s. $. No running water, no electricity. Sad but wonderful people.
Pretty tortola, british virgin islands
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Many more (& better) pics to come…
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My favorite part of a cruise-the champagne art auction!
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At martini tasting. Host asked drink trivia questions. I was only one who knew brazil’s most popular drink! Had to convince people am brazilophile & not lush!
I’m so excited. I just received my Blackpool Festival tickets, and, along with them, a schedule of The International Congress, a series of lectures given by accomplished ballroom dancers that takes place on the first two days of the festival. They’re really informative, and they give you a good chance to see some of your favorite dancers up close — not always possible during the actual competition since it gets so crowded, it’s hard to find a spectator spot close to the comp floor. (All pictures shown here, or linked to, I took during Congresses past; above is former longtime Latin champs Donnie Burns and Gaynor Fairweather from two years ago).
Well, I’m particularly thrilled with this year’s lineup: on day one, one of my favorite dancers, Sergey Surkov, is scheduled to give a talk on Paso Doble with his partner, Melia. I’ve only ever seen them demonstrate steps for other lecturers before; have never heard them lecture themselves. I’ve heard he has a really sexy Russian accent and is very personable. Now, apparently, I will find out for myself 
On the second day, giving a lecture will be my favorite American dancer, Yulia Zagoruychenko, and her new partner, with whom she’s expected to do very well, Riccardo Cocchi. Their talk is on my favorite dance — Samba of course!
Later that day, Jonathan Wilkins (who’s a baddie for leaving our Katusha!) and his new partner, former champ Hazel Newberry, will talk on Quickstep, my favorite Standard dance.
And later than day Katusha will lecture with her new partner Arunas Bizokas (you’ll remember them from “America’s Ballroom Challenge”), on the Foxtrot.
And then in the afternoon, the Congress will conclude with an all-star lineup, beginning with current Standard champs (my favorites — if you’re not into Standard now you will be once you set eyes on this pair) the Italian couple Mirko Gozzoli and Alessia Betti, who will talk on Tango (maybe now I’ll have more of an appreciation of that dance…)
Following them is current second-place Latin couple, Michael Malitowski and the amazing Joanna Leunis, who will speak about Rumba. That couple is expected to very possibly take the championships this year (although I’m hoping for Slavik Kryklyyvy and Elena Khvorova.) And ending the lectures are longtime Latin champs who retired last year, Bryan Watson and Carmen along with Standard couple William Pino and Alessandra Bucciarelli, whose lecture topic is entitled, “The Instinctive Dancer.”
There’re tons more; those are just the dancers I know well.
I just bought my plane tickets too this weekend and now can’t get that “Manchester England England” song from “Hair” out of my head…
Must some kind of airplane weirdness always happen right as I am purchasing airline tickets or getting ready to fly somewhere?
Since my two posts for the weekend were quite sobering (and long — that’s what 8 hours’ worth of testimony looks like, folks), I figured I’d end the Easter weekend with something a bit more upbeat.
So here it is.
Thanks to Sharon for this. It’s former “Dancing With the Stars” pro Maksim Chmerkovskiy’s thoughts thus far on the show, most of which I agree with:
“Hey ‘KIDS’!
Just wanted to check in and say that I am proud of you watching the show and not doing the whole…..boycote…thing, because I’m not on it.
I will be back to share with you what I thought about the dancers/couples in couple of weeks. Simply because I need more time to evaluate everything and give you my opinion.
To give you a taste:
Kristy was AWESOME!!! (as expected). Let’s see if she would be able to pull off a latin dance with hip-action and everything (after all gliding in Foxtrot and gliding in skating may not be so different)
Jason Taylor was very good. He is the new Emmit Smith, but younger and (in my heterosexual opinion) sexier (sorry Emmit )
Christian DeLa….whatever WILL be better! I think that Cheryl is pacing herself and just letting Christian turn into the dancer that he should be instead of forcing him to become something unnatural.
Mario …..Not enough given his natural talent and ability. Will be the front runner later in the season.
Marlee…..GREAT! Fabian (not because he is my friend) did an amazing job catering to her needs and supporting her in every way while highlighting her strong points.
Marisa….HILARIOUS!!!, but that’s all for now
On the other hand…..
Shannon Elizabeth……… NOT what I expected and I’m hoping that Derek can get her to be what she is looked at as: Stacy Kibler of season 6, because for now she is not!
That’s all for now!
Behave you all,
ME!!!
Also, on a Maks-related note, I ordered my tickets this weekend to the Blackpool Dance Festival, the largest, most prestigious ballroom festival in the world! I’m so excited. This will mark my third year at the festival. And, it’s Maks-related because I always see him there If not in the actual comp, then in the Italian restaurant across the street from the entrance to the Winter Gardens, where the festival is held. Above, in fact, is a surreptitiously-taken paparazzi photo, by moi, of him watching Valentin compete in amateur Latin two years ago. (Thankfully I now have a better camera…)
I’m so excited! Can it be the end of May now please!!
Here are a couple more pics from my first year at the festival:
Down the street from the entrance to the Winter Garden, where the comp is held.
At the lovely boardwalk. Unfortunately late May is still way too cold there to go in the water.
Inside the Garden.
A crowded street near the WG, where my trusty internet cafe is! It was like 40 degrees Fahrenheit outside on that day, by the way. English people are nuts!
Goddess Karina Smirnoff and her old partner Dmitri Tibouken.
Riccardo Cocchi, dancing for his homeland of Italy, with his old partner. This year he’ll be dancing for the U.S. with our wonderful Yulia Zagoruychenko, pictured below with her old partner, Max Kozhevnikov.
They performed this routine at America’s Ballroom Challenge this year as well, if you remember.
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The brilliant, longtime Latin champs, Bryan Watson and Carmen, retired last year, leaving the Latin championship wide open. So, that’ll mean new champs. Extremely exciting!
As will be … the fact that my good friend, Mika, is finally competing in the amateur championships!
I’m so excited for her. I wish I was competing, but oh well. It’s far less stressful (and expensive) to watch anyway
(photos by Paul Kolnick; I couldn’t decide on the two, so I chose both)
So sad! So, yesterday was Nikolaj Hubbe’s final performance with the New York City Ballet. He will now return to Denmark to head the Royal Danish Ballet. I am really going to miss him. There are lots of great dancers, but he was a true artist, bringing every step he did to a higher level.
A wide range of dances were on yesterday’s bill, showing his extreme versatility. The afternoon began with Balanchine’s poetic 1928 “Apollo,” the story of a boy / god who matures into a man, with the help of course of three other-worldly muses, or as Tobi Tobias defines it, “the saga of a soul … finding its identity.”
We then saw “Flower Festival in Genzano,” a short piece choreographed by August Bournonville, fitting since he founded the Royal Danish and Nikolaj excelled in his ballets there early in his career. Here, Nikolaj did not perform himself but two young dancers whom he’s trained in the School of American Ballet — the marvelous and charismatic Kathryn Morgan, whom I’d seen as Juliet in Martins’ Romeo + Juliet, and a young corps member, David Prottas, whom I’ve noticed before but only in the corps, and who blew me away yesterday. He has lovely long legs that make a breathtaking line and, as I’ve noticed before, he does every little step with such clarity and precision. He stands out. I’m serious about noticing his curly headed, long-legged excellence in the corps before — in ballets like “Square Dance;” I just never said anything because I was once told by a critic friend that it’s bad luck for an up and coming dancer to laud them too much early on — like it jinxes them or something, and perhaps because I just didn’t have the confidence to say what I thought of someone no one else had mentioned. I’m so glad Nikolaj used him in this all-important piece on his farewell program. It makes me feel like I’m not a total idiot and can spot talent and artistry too
Then came “Zakouski,” a Peter Martins ballet. To be honest, I’ve never been all that in love with Martins’s choreography (apart from the recent “Grazioso”) but once Nikolaj stepped out on that stage I felt completely different. It’s a cute story of the different facets of one couple, actually performed by two different pairs. Nikolaj danced one of the pairs with his longtime partner, Yvonne Borree, and the other partnership was danced by one of my new favorites Andrew Veyette, and sweet Megan Fairchild. Nikolaj and Yvonne had the more mature roles, their dance infused with sexy tango-like movements, which he performed perfectly sharply, sexily, manly. I love him! He also brought out the magic in Yvonne — so, he brought out the magic in both Peter and Yvonne.
When they took their curtain call for this one, it was so sad. Yvonne was crying uncontrollably; his shirt was wet all down one side with her tears. It almost made me cry. Below is a Paul Kolnick picture of them together, not in this dance but another.
The last section was “Cool” from Jerome Robbins’s “West Side Story Suite,” in which Nikolaj actually sang a little! And the program ended with Balanchine’s cowboy and saloon-girl-inhabited tribute to the American West, “Western Symphony.” I guess it’s good that I got Nilas Martins confused with Nikolaj a couple of times in this final ballet. There will still be a Nikolaj-reminder for me in the company.
Here’s a nice little write-up on Nikolaj’s career in Playbill.
As always with hugely important performances like this, the whole day is just one big event, in which everyone in the ballet world, and often beyond, partakes. I no more than got seated when I heard a man and woman fighting behind me. Apparently, she had said too loudly, “Look, there’s Baryshnikov!” thereby embarrassing him. I looked and looked but could not find him. This is likely because I’d just seen my love, hairy-faced and sporting big black chunky glasses, make his besuited entrance. He sat in the first row right smack in the center and chatted with lady next to him. During each intermission I caught him with dancers in his usual hang-out place — on the right side of the theater either on the promenade or the ground floor. Anyway, after I got myself seated for the second intermission, I tucked my legs under me to let passersby get to their seats, and right as his leg brushed mine, I looked up and saw Misha’s face. He was just sitting a few seats down from me and I didn’t even notice him! In the row behind me was Alexei Ratmansky, the director of the Bolshoi who may take over as artistic director of NYCBallet. During second intermission, I saw Philip and Wei and Philip asked me to ask him what his decision was on that (apparently he had to decide by the day before or something). I said no way, I’m way too shy! I also ran into Sarah, and Monica. Others wrote accounts of the day by the way: here is Philip’s and here is Sarah’s.
Of course the final curtain call was horrendously sad. It went on for maybe twenty minutes. There was confetti, bizillions of flowers, everyone in the company past and present went up onstage to hug and kiss him. Here are some pics I took:
Nikolaj and Damian Woetzel embracing.
Nikolaj will give his final dance performance in April with the Royal Danish. During intermission Monica said under her breath, “Hmmm, I wonder if I have any reason to go to Copenhagen in April?…” I was thinking exactly the same thing. Do we need more of a reason though?!
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A little sculpture i bought from a local artist named ray cheek.
