My Ballet Performance: January 17, 2015

I have been taking ballet classes at the 92nd St Y now for a number of years and I have participated in the Adult Student Dance Concert now a number of times since I have been with my current teacher.  Before this year, however, the last time I did it was in 2011:  in 2012 my daughter was only a few months old, in 2013 I was having cataract operations, in 2014 I was recovering from hospitalization.  In the fall of 2014 I returned to ballet class after my teacher started teaching "ballet for the older body" and I was pleased to be able to join in this year's performance, for which she choreographed a piece that included students from three different classes.

I have been studying ballet for a number of years but had never contemplated actually doing a performance until the opportunity came at the Y.  In a sense ballet class is a preparation for something that never happens --for most of us -- so it is a pleasure indeed to actually perform before an audience, especially one as supportive as the family and friends to come to see us at the Y.  Originally the performances were upstairs in one of the studios but gradually the demand for tickets increased --once we had to do three performances to accommodate the crowds! --and now we have moved to the larger ground-floor theatre.

For this performance our instructor used music by Leon Minkus, La Bayadere Waltz, and we had rehearsals for several weeks. Part of that time was to fix the choreography but most of the time was used simply to practice and get everything right, especially since the fourteen participants (twelve women and two men) had very different levels of experience.  The choreography is relatively simple, no big jumps or complex turns:  port de bras, tendues temp lié, four balancés downstage and turn, four balancés upstage and turn, four more balancés downstage, into sous-sous and pas de boureé, chasse pas de boureé to the right and left, final port de bras.  Learning the basics of this is not too difficult but getting all the movements of arms, legs, feet, hands and head properly coordinated is complex and, once again, one realizes what professional dancers go through to make everything look beautiful and relatively effortless.  There was a great deal to learn for a piece that only lasted three minutes!  My wife Susan and children Gideon and Victoria were great supporters throughout rehearsals, somewhat patiently listening to my endless comments.

I did have to get black ballet slippers for the performance, with black shirt and pants and minimal make-up.  I arrived early on Saturday for tech rehearsal, scheduled for 3 P.M., and went over our piece several times with Patti, who was also in another piece (several dancers were in more than one piece).  Tech rehearsal went quickly; though it was our only rehearsal on stage we quickly established the spacing and lighting.  Then all of us in the ballet dances had a warm-up upstairs in our regular studio and another run-through of our dance. Before I knew it it was performance time (I had, as always, brought a book with me but spent most of the time talking with my fellow performers).  They had a video feed so we could see all the dances; we were scheduled for 10th and our time came quickly, after my wife and children dropped in to say hello to everyone. Our performance went well, as I concentrated on smiling and pointing my feet.  Applause was enthusiastic and I was pleased, as were Susan, Gideon and Victoria and Susan's aunt and uncle, Phoebe and Stan, all of whom stayed for all the dances