Rites of Spring

This spring has been a Balanchine trifecta for me: first NYCB doing Symphony in C, then PNB's all-B program, and today I took my daughter to her first "big city ballet," Ballet West's penultimate performance Jewels. Okay, she had been to one PNB performance of the Nutcracker, but she was so small then it doesn't count.

The rigor of the Balanchine choreography just blows my mind. I would be sitting there, going yeah, yeah, I know that step, and I know that step, and that one too, all the while thinking, how on earth do you put those things together and make it look so light, so smooth, so creamy, so delicious? This happened in New York and it happened again today.

It was fun to see BW in action, live, at last, having gobbled up the ridiculous cream pie that was last season's Breaking Pointe (the "reality" show about some of the dancers in the company). When I watched the show, I always really liked the young up-and-comer, Beckanne, partly for her corn-pone name and partly because she just seemed so clear-headed and she obviously dances for all the right reasons. Today, she had the pas-de-deux role in Rubies, and wow. She has this amazing, effervescent, energy and you just cannot help yourself grinning when she's out there. She obviously has a great time and just loves what she is doing. Or if she doesn't, she is one amazing little actress. Anyway, she is a thrill to watch. Kind of reminds me of Ashley Bouder -- sprightly, flirtatious, springy, almost like a kid at a party, and at the same time, technically very, very precise. Plus, we spotted Christopher Rudd outside the theater before the performance, so that was kind of a little thrill, too.

Meanwhile, back on the ranch, the year-end recital looms, I need to sew some pointe shoes, but I've been too lazy, so I'm still in my dying swans, and I'm dreading the ballet desert that is summer here.