When I was a little girl I had this jewelry box with a tiny pink tutu-ed ballerina that spun in time to music when you opened it. I loved it so much and I ever since then I have been fascinated with dancers. I tried to dance when I was young (the instructors told my parents maybe I should get another hobby) but grace was simply a gene I was born without. Today was, in one day, the most graceful and elegant and then clumsy and awkward I have ever felt. We began the morning with Larissa’s ballet class, which due to some scheduling conflict had been moved to the main complex over-looking Tverskaya. I felt at once like a dancer in all of those movies I have seen about the American Ballet or Julliard, dancing in fancy mirrored studios on the tenth floor of some high-rise looking over the busy city streets. I do my very best for Larissa but what baffles me on a daily basis is her utter lack of recognition at the sight of my graceless body. She just repeats over and over again ‘No Problems’ as I am near tears with my leg being ripped out of the hip socket by her dainty little hand. Today was the first day I have ever gotten a ‘good job’ from Larissa. (This, of course, is squealed in Russian but I am not quite sure how to spell it in phonetically in English and the effect really doesn’t translate.) Regardless, I was beaming and ready for more. Until this point my pas de deux partner has been Daniel, who despite being quite strong, is a good foot shorter than me. Today I got to work with Eric, who is about my height and apparently the strongest man alive because he sent me flying through the air, spinning and flipping around like an actual ballerina. It so felt amazing that I barely noticed when I landed on my ankle weird, jamming it into the ground. I think it was the first time I did anything even remotely right in that class and it was the perfect prelude to seeing the Bolshoi Ballet perform Swan Lake. (We went to it at an amazing theatre that I think is called the Moscow Academy, because the Bolshoi Mainstage is being remodeled for the next few years at a cost of something like a billion dollars.)
It was the most amazing thing I have ever seen. The costumes, the set, the lighting, everything was magnificent and when the prima ballerina made her entrance it felt like all the air was being sucked out of my lungs. I don’t think I have the words to describe it – she was pure brilliance. She came out at one point to do yet another solo and the way she fluttered her legs up into arabesque was practically supernatural. I don’t think it is possible that she has joints or bones. Emily and I kept clutching onto one another’s arms, with each movement more spectacular than the next. And when the four swans came out to do that famous section I have only seen in movies I wanted to scream a little. SO FEAKING AMAZING! It is a three and a half hour show and I feel like a barely blinked. If I could capture the way I feel about this place and bottle it for those I love, it would be defined by the way my heart felt seeing Swan Lake. I wish I could give everyone that experience. I can not think of anything in this world that more transcendent.
It was the most amazing thing I have ever seen. The costumes, the set, the lighting, everything was magnificent and when the prima ballerina made her entrance it felt like all the air was being sucked out of my lungs. I don’t think I have the words to describe it – she was pure brilliance. She came out at one point to do yet another solo and the way she fluttered her legs up into arabesque was practically supernatural. I don’t think it is possible that she has joints or bones. Emily and I kept clutching onto one another’s arms, with each movement more spectacular than the next. And when the four swans came out to do that famous section I have only seen in movies I wanted to scream a little. SO FEAKING AMAZING! It is a three and a half hour show and I feel like a barely blinked. If I could capture the way I feel about this place and bottle it for those I love, it would be defined by the way my heart felt seeing Swan Lake. I wish I could give everyone that experience. I can not think of anything in this world that more transcendent.