Tag: Friends

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"Oberon" and Janie Taylor at NYCB!

Oberon and me and NYCB

So, I finally got to meet “Oberon” (Philip) at the New York City Ballet! (If I look a little bug-eyed in the above pic, it’s because it was unusually dark in the State Theater and my camera’s built-in flash was going nuts, so I was trying hard not to let it make me blink!) I had a great time hanging out with Philip, and, since he knew half of the Fourth Ring, I got to meet all of his friends as well! I met Philip on The Winger, a website / blog I am continually grateful to for, amongst other reasons, allowing me to hook up with so many fellow ballet-lovers in the city. It makes a big difference watching a ballet with other fans: you hear their interpretations, their thoughts, you find out insightful tidbits about dancers and conductors you didn’t know before — it just makes the ballet-going experience so much more educational and enjoyable.

Janie Taylor on flyer cover

Also, I finally got to see the spectacularly dazzling Janie Taylor! One of the ballets performed was “Afternoon of a Faun” — one of my favorites, which I have only ever seen the American Ballet Theater do. Taylor danced in that one, and she perfectly fit every adjective I have ever heard used to describe her: beautiful, captivating, bewitching, enthralling, stunning… She was absolutely ideal for the female Faun part. I enjoyed Craig Hall as well, although I noticed he did a few things differently than the ABT men have. Although, Philip said he thought that the conductor, who was filling in temporarily for the regular conductor (see, these are the kinds of things you learn by seeing the ballet with a knowledgeable balletomane!) was moving the orchestra a little too fast, so it could just be that Hall just didn’t have time to do things as full-out… HOW pathetic is it that I even know that — that I have the choreography of the male part in that one just about memorized?! Have seen it one too many times in which I have focused a bit too much on a certain Jose Manuel Carreno… 🙂 Anyway, it was such a treat to see Taylor perform for once. She has been out with a calf injury for well over a year now, and I’m told she is still not able to throw herself as energetically into her dancing as she was pre-injury, but hopefully that will change next season, and I will be able to see her much much more!

Also on the bill was “Evenfall,” a new Christopher Wheeldon ballet that just premiered last season. I really so LOVE that ballet — it and Jorma Elo’s “Slice to Sharp” were my favorites from last season’s new ballets. Evenfall is so beautiful — gorgeous purple costumes, breathtaking pas de deux and beautiful ensemble parts, very dramatic music (Bartok)… and I’m sorry but if I may sound shallow for a moment, SETH ORZA IS SO CUTE!!!! He is just perfect for the male lead in that ballet — perfect for the romantic male lead in ANYTHING! Orza is definitely THE hot guy in NYCB 🙂 Okay, I am done being a schoolgirl. But really, he is so gorgeous; and of course he is a very athletically strong dancer to boot, soaring through the air with his muscular legs in those amazing jumps. I’ll go see anything that man is in. This also marked ballerina Miranda Weese’s penultimate performance with the company before she leaves for the Pacific Northwest Ballet in Seattle. I’m still new to the NYCB, but I thought she was a lovely dancer and I’m sorry I won’t see more of her.

This is the last weekend of this NYCB season, and I’ll be there, with Oberon!, at the Saturday and Sunday matinees. I’m actually going to have a bit of a crazed dance weekend, because it is also the New York Dance Festival, a nice little local competition held at the Roseland Ballroom here in midtown, and in which several of my amateur friends will be competing. If you want to see a live ballroom competition, do come check it out!

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Hooray, David and Marcelo Tickets Have Arrived!

ABT season ticket envelope

Very happy to receive in the mail today my American Ballet Theater Met season subscription tickets! Well, they haven’t printed the tickets out yet, but they sent me a letter confirming that I got the series I wanted. I had a subscription last year, but when I went to renew it, realized there were different dancers performing on the nights of my old subscription, and some ballets that I wasn’t too keen on seeing, so I called and asked them to change the series to a different night. They told me they would try hard to accommodate me but couldn’t ensure I’d get the same seat on the new night. But, according to the letter, they were able to give me what I wanted — I’m up front to the side near the curtain on my new night, which will include: Othello starring Marcelo (and Julie), Sleeping Beauty, Romeo and Juliet (Marcelo and Julie again), and Cinderella with David as the perfect Prince Charming. Only thing is, I just realized I’m supposed to be reading from my novel at the Writers Room reading series at Cornelia Street Cafe the night of Romeo and J, so will have to exchange that one (believe it or not, my novel is more important than Marcelo 🙂 ) … which is okay, so I’ll see a different Romeo — maybe that’s a good ballet for Jose…

Anyway, when I first saw the envelope, I immediately had this weirdly dream-esque thought that ABT management was writing me to say, no, you can’t have your Marcelo tickets; you hold him to too high a standard in his real life… ABT is in Paris / London on tour right now and I saw him going to a strip show in another ABT dancer’s blog and became really kind of disgusted and commented on how I felt, upsetting the very sensitive blogger. I know I may be weirdly old-school / pre-postmodern feminist for my age and all, but I just find any kind of strip show reductive of and demeaning to women — whether it’s burlesque, a Vegas-style thing, or some greasy bar, I just do. And to see a favorite dancer of mine doing something I abhored really made me not want to know very much about him, and wonder how much I want to read that blogger’s blog anymore… (so odd for a gay man to be at a female strip show anyway…). I mean, weirdest thing I think is seeing a celebrity you so admire doing something normally private on the internet. Eh, I’m over it. I still love Marcelo and probably always will, unless I see him killing a small animal or something…

Anyway, apropros of my post about having too many gay friends and not enough romance, and intrigued by my experience at the last LVHRD event (which I, badly, didn’t think to invite her to), my lovely friend, Kathy, in an effort to make good on my promise to go with her to the next LVHRD event, sent me this link. Apparently, the next one is to be some kind of dating thing. Ugh, why!!! Why can’t it be another dance-off or paint-off or fashion or architectural duel — dating stuff, blah!

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Bad Gay Friends!!!

I was going to blog about this, but Jennifer beat me to it! Ha ha! Time Out New York‘s cover this week features a fat, fluffy, very cuddly-looking, female-friendly kitty, with the cover story, “Why You’re Single (And What You Can Do About It).” Inside, they list a plethora of reasons for that conundrum, one of which is titled “Because you’re a straight woman who only goes out with her gay friends.” I found it kind of funny that this reason is listed nearly half-way through, and not at the top of the article (this is a NYC magazine after all — don’t a great many women suffer from this here!!!) Anyway, Katharine Rust, who wrote the little piece under this topic, which contains ideas for bars, restaurants and events where such a person could go to to meet Mr. (Straight) Right, begins by noting: “A gal would be crazy NOT to surround herself with fabulous-looking guys who are quick to tell her she looks marvelous, but…” And I started thinking, hmmmm, I don’t get told I look “marvelous” all the time. Hey man, I’m being cheated out of romance AND compliments! 🙂

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On the Lookout for Anyone Appearing Brazilian!

Dea and me!

So, thanks to several employees of the New York City Ballet (including most importantly dancer Kristin Sloan and her Winger, along with a total of about five State Theater ushers, box office salespeople, ticket clerks, and security guards), I was able to make, and meet, a great new friend 🙂 I finally met Dea, who just moved to the NY area from Sao Paulo, Brazil. We’d met on the Winger message board a few months ago and became friends through our mutual interest in ballet and writing, and my keen interest in Samba and Brazil! She only moved here a week ago, but I couldn’t wait to meet up with her! We decided, appropriately, on a NYCB matinee.

While I was in the shower, I received a message from her on my cell telling me she’d be a bit later than the 1:30 time we planned to meet (which was perfectly fine with me since I was running late!), so I took my time getting ready, headed to the State Theater, picked up the tickets I’d ordered, then waited in the lobby. Before long the lobby was jam-packed with hundreds of patrons. I couldn’t believe it — I’ve never seen it like that before — NYCB is doing some good business this season!

Anyway, I became pretty nervous since I’d only told her to meet me in the lobby without specifying exactly where; there was NO WAY in this crowd she was ever going to spot me. I didn’t really know what she looked like since I’d only seen the picture of her on her blog profile, in which she has her head thrown back and is laughing, so I couldn’t really see details like hair length, etc. There was no way I was going to be able to pick her out! So, I called her cell phone to tell her I was standing at the info booth on the left side of the lobby, but Al, her fiance answered — from home! She hadn’t yet bought her own cell phone and had used his earlier before he dropped her off to catch her train! He assured me she’d find me; she was really good at such things, and that, judging by the time he left her at the station, she should be arriving just about now.

So, I walked around the lobby looking intently for someone who looked like the blog photo. About fifteen minutes later, the first hurry-up-and-get-to-your-damn-seats bell sounded, no Dea, then the second bell, then the last. I knew she’d gotten lost! I was so worried! This was her first time in New York, in the U.S. for that matter, and she had no cell phone! I must have been walking around the lobby with a quite frantic look on my face, because two security guards (one from outside, and one from inside) simultaneously approached me.

“Just give your friend’s ticket to the window clerk and she can pick it up from him, miss,” the one told me, the other agreeing.

“Oh no, I’m not worried about missing the show, I’m worried that my friend is really lost.”

“Can you call her,” he asked.

“No, she doesn’t have a cell phone,” I said.

“No cell phone?” they both said in unison. I know, unheard of…

“No, she’s just moved here and hasn’t got one yet.”

“We’ll tell her where to go when she gets here; you don’t need to miss the show,” the one said. Overhearing our conversation, a third guard walked up handing me an envelope. “Just write her name, put the ticket inside and give it to the window clerk. They’ll give it to her when she arrives.”

“But how will she know to go to the window?” I asked.

“Oh EVERYONE knows, trust me,” the one guard said, with a smirk.

“But she’s from Brazil. What if the customs are different there?” At this the inside security guard, who had a West Indian accent, looked up to the left, contemplating.

“The customs are the same everywhere. She’ll know,” he said after a few seconds’ thought, nodding firmly, like he was completely positive of his assertion.

“And, if not, you’ll direct her there, right?” I said.

“Yeah, of course. What’s she look like?” the outside guard asked.

“Actually, I don’t know.”

“What?” they all said.

“I’m meeting her for the first time today. I just know she’s from Brazil. And she has brown hair … I think.” They all looked at each other like I was nuts.

“Look, miss, we’ll take care of it. Just write her name down and put the ticket in and you go on upstairs. Don’t worry.”

“Well, what if she doesn’t understand English that well?” This seemed to crack everyone up. “No, seriously, I mean, you’ll like walk her straight to the window and everything?” More laughs. I’m a worrisome dork. Always have been. I worry about Everything.

“It’ll be FINE, miss, we’ll take care of her.”

Ugh. They seemed sure everything would be okay. I hesitantly approached the box office window, looking over my shoulder hoping she’d run in just then. But no such luck. I explained everything all over again to the guy at the window. This one was a real jokester.

“She not from this country huh? Ooooh, this could be fun!” he said with an evil grin.

“What?!”

“Ha ha, just kidding!”

“She has darkish hair, I think, and she’s from Brazil.”

“Oooh, Brazil,” he said knowingly. “Oh, I’ll DEFINITELY recognize her in that case.” I assumed he was being sarcastic so I apologized for the vague description. But then he said without any irony whatsoever, “No really, I’ll see her. If she’s Brazilian, I’ll know.”

“What? No you won’t!” I laughed.

“Yeah yeah, I will. Trust me. I will.”

I really didn’t know if he was for real, but I turned around one last time and Dea still hadn’t arrived, and both security guards were looking right at me chuckling and motioning for me to go in. So, I did. I got upstairs to the Fourth Ring and explained the whole thing again to the usher while she was trying to seat me in the dark during the pause in the performance.

When the lights went on signaling the first intermission, I jumped up, grabbed my bag, darted out of theater and headed for the stairs to the lobby. If she wasn’t down there now I was definitely calling Al again. But right then, I heard someone say “Tonya?” In the HUGE crowd of people making their way from the theater to the lobby or restrooms, she actually recognized me! So, Al was right! And I was right that she’d gotten very lost on the subway — oh no! She also told me the minute she walked into the lobby everyone seemed to know who she was — probably because she had a ‘lost look’ on her face, she surmised! Ha ha — thanks New York City Ballet ushers, security guards, and ticket clerks 🙂

So we saw last two thirds of the matinee’s repetoire together (one a Balanchine, the other Robbins’ “I’m Old Fashioned” — which we both loved!), took some pictures in the lobby, then had lentil soup and these enormous cups of organic soy tea at Le Pain Quotidien, where Kristin had taken the blogger gang the week before! We ended up having a wonderful time and I’m so glad she’s moved to NY so we can talk about dance and writing and hang out and go to ballets and Winger stuff, etc. etc. etc! I just feel so bad that she got lost. But all’s well that ends well, right!

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Street Samba, Part Deux

Quenia Ribeiro DVD

Last night my friend, Kathy, and I took Quenia Ribeiro‘s Samba class at Alvin Ailey (me for the second time now, Kathy for the first). Kathy seemed humorously dumbfounded (like I think everyone is the first time they try the dance!), but she seemed to have fun — at least I think she did! But I thought it was actually harder this time — it seemed that the actual steps were more complicated than last time. Then, I at least knew where to put my feet on the floor, and just struggled like crazy with moving my pelvis and rib cage properly. But this time I couldn’t even get the steps down well enough to focus on body movement. Ugh.

In class I saw an acquaintance from my ballroom studio. We chatted a bit and she said she’s trying to save money by taking street Samba instead of ballroom as well. I guess I’m not the only one overwhelmed with the cost of ballroom…

Anyway, Quenia told us last night that she will be in Brazil for the next month for Carnival (lucky lucky her!), so there will be a substitute teacher at Ailey, which will probably be good for me since the sub hopefully will not know how advanced all of the “beginner” students are (maybe the more advanced dedicated Quenia students won’t even show?…) and will go A LOT slower. Fingers crossed anyway. Well, I bought Quenia’s instructional DVD and am going to practice like crazy over the next month so maybe I won’t be such a sorry sight when she returns! Hopefully by just watching her on tape, SOMETHING will seep in…

Speaking of great Brazilian dancers … the awesome Chimene sent me this link. Funny thing is, though of course I HAD to add it to my blogroll immediately (the link is the exclamation points at the top of the ballet section, because that is how I think of him — in exclamation points 🙂 🙂 ) and know I am going to be searching MySpace for his comments to his friends, I can’t help but feel kind of weird doing so. I remember reading a discussion on Ballet Talk not long ago where people were agreeing that it was probably better not to meet your favorite dancers for fear of disappointment. Not that a huge amount of info is revealed on MySpace, but still, do I need to know that he’s “in a relationship” or that some of his friends seem a little … hmmm … outlandish!? I don’t know… It’s just weird seeing someone who has kind of a celebrity status to you, whom you admire / worship / have a gigantic crush on 🙂 just talking freely in an open forum like that .. and whether it’s actually hanging out and conversing with or just watching in on the conversations of said admiree / idol / crush object — I mean, you’re bound to be disappointed if they don’t live up to your expectations, if they’re not perfect, which they won’t be since they’re human of course…

On the other hand, look at the cute cute puppy! (who looks rather contemplative in this pic). And look at his answers to the profile questions 🙂 … Ugh, how could anyone not just LOVE him?

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LVHRD, Dewars, and Dueling Architects

LVHRD event Last night, my friend, Alyssa, and I went to an event that Kristin had told me about when I met her on Sunday. (She also posted about it on the Winger, here). LVHRD (live hard without the vowels), an arts organization whose mission is to bring together progressive artists, holds events throughout the city in which different kinds of artists compete against each other. The materials to be used in the competition and the location of it are not disclosed until the day of the event and are then relayed to participants via text-message. They’ve previously held competitions between dancers, visual artists, and fashion desingers, but last night’s duel was the ‘Battle of the Architects.’ A duo of female architects from two firms were given a limited amount of time in which to plan and design a layout, then build a model of it. The main material to be used was — cheese, which female registrants to the event were told in the text message to bring. I had a Media Bistro panel discussion to attend immediately before, so Alyssa bought our cheese — Alyssa rocks!

alyssa

After letting the architects go at it for three hours (oh, by the way, the competitors are separated by a big screen so they can’t see what the other is up to), we voted by text message for our favorite.

winning team Field Operations (above) was the winning team. I think everyone liked them mainly because they wore dresses made of material that they used in building their model — so throughout the competition they ended up cutting off large portions of each other’s costumes (the one with the more geometric design ended up with a rather short skirt). Interesting schtick. Below is the other team, Balmori Associates:

team 2 The LVHRD people all had cameras and video recorders and were going around snapping pictures, which they’d then post on the giant screen behind the action. In the very top picture above, if you look hard at the screen, you can see Kristin. They got two silly ones of me — one where I look like I’m on something serious while talking to Tony Schultz from the Winger, and another where I’m at the front of the crowd at the stage looking a little too excited about getting a shot of one of the models.

So, as I just mentioned, Tony was there too, and Alyssa and I spent a lot of time chatting with him. Found out that I totally got his bio wrong in my last post — oops! But, he said he rather liked my reinvention of him, so didn’t correct me 🙂 Anyway, he’s really a PHYSICS grad student at CUNY (which explains why 99% of what he says is way over my head!) and teaches at Sarah Lawrence — go here for his real bio.

Scariest thing about the night was that Dewars had hosted the event, so there was a free Dewars bar. Alyssa and I each got a cup of Scotch and gingerale. Alyssa was practically on the floor after finishing about 2/3 of hers, but somehow I downed my whole glass without feeling a thing — extremely weird since I am usually a complete lightweight… Either the bartender must have taken one look at my face and thought I couldn’t handle much alcohol, so went heavy on the soda, or else I am becoming a lush 🙂

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"Dirty Talk"ing Angry Macho Homophobes

Evangelina and me at Dirty Talk

Who us? Of course not!!! Above is a picture taken last night of my good friend Evangelina (who is on the right) and me (sorry for poor picture quality; could my camera please not have a nervous breakdown whenever both zoom and flash are used simultaneously???) We’re in the very comfy lobby of the off-off-Broadway theater Center Stage, waiting to see a new play called “The Dirty Talk.” It was a special occasion because it marked the foray of Evangelina’s husband, Michael, an accountant and actor, into theater producing — go Michael!

Dirty Talk box office

The play was good. It was about these two men who agree to meet in person after having met online in one of those naughty-talking chat-rooms. Only the one guy, characterized by the title of this post, thinks he is going to be hooking up with a Hooters-working nursing-school student with the stereotypical enormous breasts, instead of a sensitive bisexual man. The two end up stuck alone together in a Jersey cabin out in the woods during a nasty thunderstorm, and the encounter eventually compels the first man to explore the reasons underlying his, shall we say, problematic personality traits, which are partly responsible for ending his marriage, and which stem from upsetting childhood experiences in which his father attempted to “make a man out of him” via various disturbing rituals.

Why do men do that to their sons??? My grandfather and grandmother did that “becoming a man” b.s. to my dad by forcing him into the army. But he was far too sensitive for the military, and I think it’s permanently damaged him psychologically.

Anyway, my only gripe with the play was with the second character, who I thought was just not fully fleshed out enough. I understood his need to pretend to be a woman online, but couldn’t fathom what he was thinking by actually showing up at the cabin as … himself. At one point, the other character asks him, “what were you thinking?” and he doesn’t really have an answer. So, he seemed to be more of a catalyst for the other, more compellingly dynamic character’s self- exploration.

The acting was excellent, and the play was by turns hilarious and sad. I used to go to these small off-off-Broadway plays all the time when I first moved to New York, and haven’t been in a while. I’d forgotten how much I like them. You can sit practically onstage, where you can see the action up close and really feel like you’re a part of it. To me, you get so much more out of the production than you do a big Broadway play, which, in those huge theaters, is so distancing in comparison. Evangelina and I have both been so busy — me with dancing and writing and working, and she with her new marriage and her and Michael’s decision to buy some property upstate and build their first house (!), that we haven’t seen each other in nearly a year. But, as with all close friends, the minute you plop down next to each other on the sofa with a glass of wine and start yapping away, it’s like you just saw each other!

I hope everyone had a nice day off today in honor of Dr. Martin Luther King. I didn’t have to go into the office, but I brought some work home, which makes me feel a bit guilty, being from the Evan Mecham state and all… But, at least I only read the transcript from my next case’s Voir Dire (Jury Selection), which I don’t see so much as work: it’s one of my favorite parts of the trial since it’s where I get to “meet” all the different kinds of New Yorkers who are considered for selection on my client’s jury. Anyway, WordPress blogs don’t take kindly to YouTube embeddings, so I’m linking to Doug Fox’s post today, for The Speech!

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Ugh, My Sinatra Suite Is Not Goin’ So Sweet…

 

Extremely corny play on words, I know…

Ugh. Last night I had another ballroom lesson with my private lesson teacher, with whom I’m working on a foxtrotish version of Tharp’s Sinatra Suites for the school’s next student showcase, coming up in April. I had a very stressful day at work, and I was so frazzled I completely forgot to eat, which, before a dance lesson, is just not conducive to success. At least not with me. About half an hour before I had to leave for the studio, I tried to scarf down some yogurt and granola, but ever since I developed my Globus a few years ago, scarfing is just not possible; I have to eat s-l-o-w-l-y. Anyway, I managed to ingest about 1/4 of the cup, while stretching and packing up some home-work for later in the evening (nothing like multi-tasking!). But, with only a bowl of cereal and small cup of coffee about nine hours earlier, that quarter cup of yogurt wasn’t enough to keep me focused.

I think. Or it could just be the increasingly weird dynamic I seem to be having lately with my teacher. He seemed to be yelling at me for everything. He kept telling me to look in the mirror at how bad I looked, how crooked and broken my lines were, and how horrible my posture was. And I couldn’t always understand what was bad. Maybe you just can’t see yourself properly in a mirror. (And, he told me to bring a camcorder to my next lesson, so I could videotape myself, which I think is a good idea, since I do seem to pick up on things I hadn’t seen in the mirror … as long as I don’t obsess too much over my flaws). But, in the mirror at least, I don’t always understand how what I’m doing is not right. For example, I’ve been told before — repeatedly actually — that, since I have hyperextended arms, they should be a bit softened (slightly bent at the elbow so as to look graceful and not harsh) — have been told that by both ballet teachers and Pasha, my erstwhile Latin teacher. But this teacher tells me hyperextended is good and I need to make maximum use of that and show it off by making sure my arms are completely straight out at all times, never the least bit bent. But sometimes I couldn’t extend my arms as long and straight out as he wanted me to — I was reaching and reaching and stretching, while he kept chanting “more more more” but they just wouldn’t go any farther out without pulling my blasted shoulder out of its socket! And, when he’d pull on an arm to try to help me make that line, that’s exactly what it felt like! Or, he’d twist my rib cage area if I wasn’t doing “cross body movement” properly, or slap my wrist down if it my hand was extended outward instead of down, or he’d twist my wrist if he wanted me to hold my hands palms facing up instead of down. And some of the ways he was handling me were a little scary. I know he was just trying to correct me, but I had to ask him, nicely of course, if he could be a little gentler, especially with my left wrist since I have a partially torn a ligament in that one, and could have to have surgery if it gets any worse, which I most definitely don’t want. He apologized and explained that he just didn’t want to have to keep repeating himself, and besides, if I didn’t learn how to give him my body weight properly and to maintain the proper push / pull connection with him, especially on a trick like a lunge or stretch, I could hurt myself very easily.

I know that’s true, and that if you don’t have proper technique, both partner-dancing and alone, you can incur serious injury. But on the other hand, I have a very hard time learning when I feel like I’m being yelled at. I just get all flustered and can’t do anything right. And, we were going to put this overhead lift into our routine, and I know myself, and if I’m the least bit scared of the guy I’m dancing with, I’m not going to trust him and I’m subconsciously going to be pulling myself down while he’s trying to get me up into the air, and we could both hurt each other. I need to feel very comfortable with the guy in order to trust him, and in order to do hard things properly. I actually don’t see how anyone can dance with a partner they don’t feel completely comfortable with. It makes me feel for professionals who have to partner someone they’re not comfortable with.
Anyway, I don’t know if it was the lack of food or the pressure but I just couldn’t do anything right, and I couldn’t even remember the rather simple choreography we’ve done so far. I really thought at one point he was going to kill me! I mean, I know he wants me to dance well, and of course I want to be the best I can be, and I appreciate that he is serious and not lazy. But, on the other hand, I am never going to be a professional dancer, and this is supposed to be fun. I think for the first time, after leaving a hard day at work behind to head to the studio, I did not feel my stress-level lessened. Maybe I should put this routine on hold for a while and save the showcase for next October when they have it at a Manhattan theater (as opposed to Long Island, where it is in the spring), when all of my friends can attend again. In the meantime, I can lighten up and maybe learn some standard ballroom from the standard teacher, reducing my private lesson to every other week instead of every week to decrease expenses…. I hate to abandon some of the pretty Tharp-esque choreography I was trying so hard to learn though … although what we’re doing doesn’t look much like what Baryshnikov and Elaine Kudo were doing on the tape anyway… I guess genuine foxtrot ballroom and balletish ballroom are two completely different things. I hadn’t realized that. I have a lot to learn about dance, apparently.

Anyway, I guess I will be thinking about this — where to go with my ballroom dancing from here — over the long weekend, since I don’t have my next lesson scheduled until next Friday…

But, the GREAT thing about last night was that I saw a very good ballroom friend: the always sugar-sweet, always full of motherly advice, the splendidly charmingly wonderful, Elaine, whom I haven’t seen since our October showcase! She was having a coaching with the studio owner. When, after my class, I practically fell right into her open arms crying, like a ridiculous baby, she insisted I accompany her to her favorite nearby diner for a glass of wine and some much-needed comfort food, and a pep talk. Funny thing about food though is that, when I haven’t eaten all day and I’m completely stressed, I seem to have no appetite. Well, I ordered some very greasy, very tasty fries, and a glass of the house red (just to cut cholesterol levels from ingestion of said fries, of course 🙂 )

Elaine

And here, Miss Elaine is being her silly self 🙂 (Notice my ever so nutritious dinner in foreground):
Elaine II

Anyway, it ended up being a very good night after all, full of catching up on life, receiving sound motherly advice on managing work stress and dealing with dance teachers (!), and enjoying good, trashy comfy food. Thanks Elaine 🙂 🙂 🙂