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50 Thoughts I Had While Watching Boston Ballet’s The Sleeping Beauty

May 16, 2017 by Emily 1 Comment

Photo by Liza Voll, courtesy Boston Ballet

As a self-proclaimed Disney princess in training and a former dancer, it’s slightly mortifying to admit that, on the way to my recent viewing of Boston Ballet Sleeping Beauty, I googled “which came first sleeping beauty ballet or story.”

Yeah it was the story. By about 200 years. 10 points from Gryffindor.

I’m here to talk ballet though. With the exception of some VHS viewings during the toddler ballet class I used to co-teach {read: I was on bathroom duty}, I, also embarrassingly, had never seen it. That {finally!} changed this month, and here’s how it went down…

Prologue

What’s thaa–FLOWER CROWNS!
Ohh Mom can I get one? Boston Ballet gift shop is so on TREND right now.
Or maybe she brought it herself in which this 6-year-old is so on trend right now.
How is it 2017 and we have not figured out a way to make holding a handbag, program, ticket, and champagne glass while trying to find one’s seat just slightly more feasible?
Spill number one. I think that lost sip alone cost about three dollars.
God I hope there are no political undertones in The Sleeping Beauty.

Photo by Liza Voll, courtesy Boston Ballet

Showtime

1. BUTTERFLIES
2. And I’m an 8-year-old me in Magic Kingdom.
3. I might cry actually?
4. Oh poms on the shoes, very in gentlemen, very in!
5. KIDS there are KIDS in this performance oh those little ballet boys are such a treat!!
6. Dancers’ effortlessly graceful hands are without question their most underrated feature.
7. No Newbury Street manicure and paraffin wrap ever gon’ make my hands looks that graceful.
8. This Cinderella looking one is stealing alllllll my attention right now and not just because I like her costume.
9. The sound of pointe shoes on a stage gives me all the feels.
10. {loud sigh next to me} Mom too.
11. This scene is 8-year-old Emily’s vision of what love is supposed to be.
12. Can I have some wine to go with that cheese?
13. Related: I am so committed to my husband but good god these male bodies.
14. Stop gaping Emily.
15. Flying monkeys?
16. Nope wrong show Wicked comes to town next month!
17. I swear I remembered my glasses this time but is that makeup or masks?!
18. Masks. Must get prescription checked.
19. I don’t know if this is Mikko’s doing or who deserves credit but Boston Ballet has been upping the sneaky additions of humor lately and it is CLUTCH.
20. I met Mikko Nissinen this month.
21. You could say we’re basically besties.
22. I have FOMO of not being in this ballet right now.
23. Ahhh. They think they defeated this behemoth but we know better.

Photo by Liza Voll, courtesy Boston Ballet

24. This aesthetic is on point so ANTHRO.
25. Like I would have been very happy with this as my own wedding.
26. Minus the whole marrying a man I met once before bit.
27. I’m not going to name names ok I don’t actually know her name but I spy someone who is going to go preeetttyyy far in this company.
28. Speaking of principals! Aurora!
29. Aren’t these suitors a little old for her?
30. Oh who am I to judge.
31. Holy SHPLIT it just keeps going!!!
32. It’s going to break!!

Photo by Liza Voll, courtesy Boston Ballet

33. Why, just why, would you approach a shadowy hooded woman on your own account girl?
34. Well I mean I guess the Beast refused to and got sort of screwed so ok I see your point.
35. So impressive how people dressed then.
36. But honestly there must have been some version of the yoga pant in 1890, no?
37. These nymphs are sporting some J.Crew Holiday 2013 sequins and I’m o-b-s-e-s-s-e-d.
38. This sass is playing hard so hard to get you’d think Prince was just her side boo.
39. She’s all, you think I’m just a dream well how you like me now?
40. I’ve seen a lot of chaîné turns in my life but these chaîné turns really put the wind in my sail.
41. You could say they’re turnt.
42. QUESTION how did Aurora make it to a bed when everyone else froze in place?
43. People are offended by the idea of The Bachelor but girlfriend just woke up and decided she’s ok with marrying him after one walk around the forest and a 100-year break?
44. Lilac Fairy is all yeah, you all owe me.
45. PUSS IN BOOTS who let them in here?!
46. Blue Bird is like, oh, you want me to put my leg down now?
47. But, why did Little Red Riding Hood bring the wolf as her wedding date though?
48. I know it’s the biggest faux pas to even think the word Disney in relation to the ballet but THIS. IS. SO. MAGICAL.
49. I’m not crying you’re crying.
50. Oh good Mom is actually crying.

Because of the company performing it, and the esteem of the story, my expectations were subconsciously set high for Boston Ballet Sleeping Beauty. Unsurprisingly, they were met and exceeded with a cherry on top.

The Sleeping Beauty runs through May 27 at the Boston Opera House. It’s a true gem for all ages, and I can’t wait for you to scoop up some tickets for yourselves!

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Full disclosure:: I was provided with two complimentary tickets to The Sleeping Beauty for the purpose of this review. All opinions expressed are my own

52 Thoughts I Had While Watching Boston Ballet’s Artifact

March 13, 2017 by Emily 1 Comment

Photo by Rosalie O’Connor, courtesy of Boston Ballet

Coming back from a vacation is always slightly easier to do when you have something to look forward to on the other end. For me, that was a hot date with the Boston Ballet at the dress rehearsal for William Forsythe’s Artifact.

The setting:: I’ve got a prime seat in a near-empty theater with two gems—Laura and Celina—a handful of photog/videographers, and Lillian, the darling Marketing Manager for the Boston Ballet. We’re chatting and waiting for the show to start when she casually tells me the choreographer has entered the building.

1. Forsythe is here?
2. FORSYTHE IS HERE.
3. What does he look like? Quick, I’ll Google image.
4. He’s an actor?
5. Definitely wrong Forsythe
6. Backspace backspace, “william forsythe choreographer”
7. GOT HIM ok. On the lookout.
8. Someone’s on the stage. Is it Dusty?
9. Why did I forget my glasses why did I forget my glasses
10. Better to focus on the movements than the faces anyway?
11. The lights are on.
12. There’s no music.
13. Is this because dress rehearsal or art?
14. QUIET DOWN PEOPLE IT’S PURPOSEFUL ARTISTIC SILENCE

Photo by Rosalie O’Connor, courtesy of Boston Ballet

15. Spooky setting reminds me of Into the Woods.
16. (In only the best of ways)
17. Spoken word?!
18. They never cease to surprise me here.
19. Trying not to forget you will hear you will see I think I’m being hypnotized? I think you’ve always been saying the same things down there
20. Their movements are so simple and clean they could almost trick you into thinking anyone could be up there performing.
21. Sorry suckers, harder than it looks.
22. Oh I LURVE the sound of bare feet on stage floors.
23. Takes me back to my younger days when I was taught that the most desirable thing in life is not a perfect dancer’s body or pristine balance or true love but rather perfectly calloused feet.
24. Wow there’s so much going on OH MY GOD I DON’T KNOW WHERE TO LOOK
25. Why you thought you think you saw you thought you think I’M GOING CRAZY AREN’T I
26. Their costumes looks so comfy!
27. I mean, relatively speaking.
28. Bodysuits can only be considered comfortable to a select part of the population.
…………
29. Oh sorry I just lost all thoughts during that section.
30. I am being hypnotized aren’t I?

boston ballet tickets; william forsythe artifact

Photo by Rosalie O’Connor, courtesy of Boston Ballet

31. I haven’t seen high jumps like this since the Nutcracker Russians!
32. If you don’t incorporate syncopated clapping is it really a contemporary dance?
33. This might be the biggest ensemble piece I’ve seen on this stage to date.
34. I’d love to be a fly on the wall when some of these dancers receive their costume assignments.
35. It’s a pas de deux x2!
36. Like a double date!
37. SCENE CHANGE these transitions are so seamless it’s creepy!
38. How did we get down to one couple?
39. Ok I’m picking up on some political undertones.
40. It’s Trump’s America and we’re so confused and can’t keep up and don’t know where to look.
41. Don’t quote me on that one.
42. Women versus men democrats versus republicans?
43. I guarantee this work is unlike anything else these ballerinas have ever been asked to do.
44. Must confirm after show, is “ballerina” a degrading and/or anti-feminist term?
45. I know I know you know I know this is like a high school gossip sesh.
46. This PIANO I’m feeling La La Land right now!
47. SASS is it just me or did this just take a turn for sultry?
48. It’s the three Russians from The Nutcracker!
49. Also don’t quote me on that note to self check program books to confirm.
50. Ok there is definitely a political theme going on here right?
51. I. Am. Mesmerized.
52. I just let out a deep breath I didn’t even realize I was holding.

Like a fleeting summer romance, Artifact had the quickest of runtimes and unfortunately wrapped up last week. But it’s not your last chance to see a Forsythe piece–Boston Ballet kicked off a five-year partnership with the choreographer, so there’s more of where this came from. The improv, the purposeful unfinished production, this was unlike anything I’ve ever seen from this company.

In the meantime, save the date for the premiere of Boston Ballet’s Kylián/Wings of Wax, which kicks off March 23! Assuming my ridiculous commentary hasn’t gotten me banned from The Opera House, you know I’ll be back.

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40 Thoughts I Had While Watching Boston Ballet’s The Nutcracker, v. 2

December 7, 2016 by Emily 4 Comments

I’m about to celebrate my 28th Christmas. That means I’ve seen The Nutcracker, let’s say, give or take, 20 times.

…Not including all of the VHS tape showings I’ve sat through in years of teaching and taking dance lessons myself.

20-something times later, I still feel all the feels. It never gets old, and I never run out of ignorant and ridiculous reactions. So here you have it, forty thoughts that danced through my mind watching Boston Ballet’s The Nutcracker 2016::

1. The chin-up bright-eyed the-world-is-my-oyster look of joy Delia Wada-Gill just offered the audience as she walked to center stage is the same look I get on my face when I walk into a doughnut shop and I hope she never forgets that feeling.
2. OOH chIIIIIlls at that first note GAME. ON.
3. EEEP the urchins are the cutest little munchkins e-v-e-r.
4. Just me or does Drosselmeier resemble Evan from The Bachelorette?
5. God I hope Evan and Carly are still together.
6. I am in literal tears over the fact that there is a biracial couple at this party SO BOSTON SO BEAUTIFUL.
7. The men all just took a shot together is that a new addition to the choreo or have I been missing this action all these years?
8. Grandmother is lookin’ DAMN good for her age.
9. The Ballerina Doll might be the most underrated character of this entire ballet.
10. Welp another year another failed attempt to get this audience up for the standing ovation that Bear solo deserved.
11. God a nutcracker is SUCH a weird gift I can’t get over it.
12. Must have been the Hatchimal of 1816?
13. Is the tree growing or are we shrinking? Asking for a friend.
14. I know the rats are not very likable but can we all take a moment to appreciate how hard their job is?
15. You do realize that’s the same level as playing like Captain Hook or Jafar in Disney World right?
16. You have to be an amazing performer while wearing a fake head four times the size of your own sweating buckets and maintaining composure all while being booed by the audience.
17. GINGERBREAD MAN!!!
18. You are my favorite and I feel the same sort of affection toward you as I know many feel about Li’l Sebastian.
19. Snow Queen SLAY she is f-l-a-w-l-e-s-s.
20. Not sure if I’m just more in tune to it now or if it’s a commentary on current events but this pas de deux is giving off a serious feminist vibe and I am digging IT #girlpower
21. I just want this to be my life.
22. Would I really want this life?
23. You’d, like, never be available for Christmas parties.
24. No it’d be worth it.
25. But like, spiked hot chocolate.
26. Worth it still want this life.

27. My vote for the most impressive thing in this show really should be the number of pirouettes Misa Kuranaga can do or how flexible Lia Cirio is but I really cannot stop thinking about how flawlessly that crown goes onto Clara’s head and how it’s able to stay there for the next 45 minutes.
28. If I am so lucky as to have a son he will be forced into ballet for the sole purpose of becoming one of these adorable baby guards one day.
29. The Spanish set looks like the most fun double date ever.
30. Why do we never discuss the Arabian set’s precious baby snake charmers who sit so politely and patiently on the side?
31. I’m feeling slightly uncomfortable and I’m not sure if it’s because of the eerie music or looking at her abs while acknowledging the amount of pumpkin pie I just ate.
32. This is goals.
33. Starting a Change.org petition to lengthen the Chinese set.
34. TheRussiansaremyfavoritepartofthisentireshowI’msorrynotsorryIcan’tdenyityou’reallbeautiful.
35. BLACK SHEEP BLACK SHEEP I want to snuggle you!!!
36. Waltz of the Flowers SOGOOD right now is it always this good?
37. Ashley Ellis you are Hilary Duff in A Cinderella Story.
38. Forget the rats, pretty sure the most difficult role of this entire show is that of the soldier who has to stand guard for virtually half of this act and is played by what must be an 8-year-old boy aka the most impatient age and gender combination of all time.
39. The Grand Pas de Deux is a literal dance-off and how have I never noticed that before?
40. Misa def just mic-dropped.

Where can you too indulge in The Nutcracker Boston friends? Mikko Nissinen’s adaptation will be playing at the Boston Opera House through December 31st, and tickets start at just $35 {#stockingstuffer}. Forgive me for being blunt, but you will regret not making time for this production.

Photos by Liza Voll, courtesy of Boston Ballet

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Full disclosure:: I was provided with two complimentary tickets to The Nutcracker
for the purpose of this review. All opinions expressed are my own, and I have
attended Boston Ballet’s The Nutcracker in many years past, unsponsored.

40 Thoughts I Had While Watching Boston Ballet’s Mahler’s Third

October 27, 2015 by Emily 12 Comments

I had the pleasure of attending the dress rehearsal of Boston Ballet’s Third Symphony of Gustav Mahler, running through November 1st at the Boston Opera House. Approximately 12 seconds in, I knew that a) I was never going to want it to end, and b) I was never going to be able to give it the review it deserves. So rather, I ask you to read Jeffrey Gantz’s praise in The Boston Globe for a proper synopsis and take this, possibly the most academic review of a professional ballet performance e-v-e-r, with a grain of salt.

1. The theater is quite empty and I feel a bit like Hugh Grant in Notting Hill when he gets snuck into a press meeting per request of Julia Roberts.
2. Should I say shell chic’d or Horse & Hound if anyone asks?
3. I hate telling people “what publication I write for.” Like shell SHOCKED, ok?
4. Shoot I didn’t do my research ahead of time, what’s this ballet about?
5. Hi Smita!
6. You’d think that as someone who has danced for the last 22 years, I’d know a bit more about ballets beyond the realm of Sleeping Beauty-Swan Lake-Nutcracker.
7. Holy stage full of men.
8. Is it all men?
9. I’ve never seen men push up so gracefully.
10.Say men one more time.

11. So this is what it means to be sitting on the edge of your seat.
12. I cannot comprehend the extent of this physical strength.
13. And people think ballet is just tutus and reindeer.
14. They’re standing on their heads.
15. THEY’RE STANDING ON THEIR HEADS.
16. I’m supposed to be photographing and studying critically but my jaw is down and I can’t think about anything other than the fact that there are four men holding four men holding four additional men and they have to do this every night for the next for the next 12 nights and are they even breaking a sweat?
17. Anyone who has ever made a joke about men in tights has never seen these men in tights.
18. You can see the sweat splat every time they hit their chests. That’s dedication.

19. A female! She lives!
20. IT’S DUSTY BUTTON. We go way back. She assisted in a master class I took when I was 15. I’ve stalked her via social media ever since. Like I tried to add her to my Top 8 on MySpace.
21. Yes, Dusty Button is her real name.
22. I mean, as far as I know.
23. I wonder if we’re neighbors?
24. Her leg is longer than my entire body.

25. This “Summer” movement is a vision in pastels.
26. Seo Hye Han is an actual doll and I’d like her legs please.
27. They’re dancing in silence. Do you know how hard it is to dance in silence? I don’t mean around your bedroom in your underwear I mean in front of 2,500 people and you’re not even wearing underwear. Tights don’t count.

28. Where is that voice com–
29. Oh! A chorus!
30. And a soloist!
31. There’s something you don’t see in Swan Lake.
32. Have they been sitting there the whole time or…?

33. We’ve gone from sunflowers to death and back again.
34. I love simple but purposeful costuming.
35. Tutus are so overrated anyway.
36. “There will be no intermission during tonight’s performance” might be the 8 scariest words for a tired dancer to hear uttered.
37. Oh Lasha Khozashvili you exceptional man I do hope you get a good night’s sleep tonight.
38. I could see this performance 8 more times and always find something or someone new to watch.

39. THAT.
40. That was not your sister’s dance recital.

Boston Ballet’s Mahler’s Third Symphony is running until November 1st (coming up quickly!) at the Boston Opera House, and tickets can be purchased here! Do yourself a favor and don’t miss this– tickets start at just $35.

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A Day at the Ballet

December 8, 2014 by Emily Leave a Comment

Maybe my favorite of ALL Christmas traditions? Blame it on the dancer in me, but it’s one hundred percent going to see The Nutcracker in Boston. An indulgence that’s a bit difficult to do every year, which makes it even more of a treat when it does happen.